Salivary amino acids and proteins in normal and malnourished Egyptian infants and young children.

Amino acids and proteins in whole saliva of normal and malnourished Egyptian infants and young children were investigated. 16 amino acids, 7 of them are essential, could be detected in saliva of normal infants. Electrophoretic analysis revealed the existence of 10 protein components in saliva of either normal or malnourished infants. In oedematous cases, salivary aminoacids, particularly the essential ones, were increased as well as most of the protein components. In non-oedematous cases, the pattern was more or less normal, but in 3rd grade marasmus, amino acid and protein components of saliva were somewhat increased. The conclusion was drawn that such increase is mainly due to tissue degeneration which is more marked in oedematous than non-oedematous form of the disease.