Vissink A, Spijkervet F K, Van Nieuw Amerongen A
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Groningen, The Netherlands.
Spec Care Dentist. 1996 May-Jun;16(3):95-103. doi: 10.1111/j.1754-4505.1996.tb00842.x.
It is often assumed that salivary secretion reduces with age. About 25% of the elderly suffer from oral dryness and related complaints. Nevertheless, data on stimulated salivary flow rate in healthy elderly revealed no significant age-related decrease other than a slight decrease of the secretion from the (sero)mucous glands under conditions of minimal or extended stimulation. With regard to salivary gland morphology and composition of saliva, age-related changes have been reported in healthy individuals, too. With increasing age, the number of acini reduces and the amount of fatty and fibrous tissue increases. Moreover, animal studies revealed that the synthesis of proteins is reduced by 60% in advanced years. These data indicate that changes might occur in concentration and/or activity of the organic components of saliva. In human studies, the concentration of sIgA in labial saliva and the concentrations of high-molecular and low-molecular mucins in mucous saliva appeared to be reduced with age. Since sIgA and mucins are important in the immunologic and non-immunologic defense of the oral cavity, both defense systems are reduced in healthy elderly. Analysis of these data suggests that the oral soft tissues may become somewhat more susceptible to environmental factors due to a reduction of the immunological and non-immunological defense systems.
人们常常认为唾液分泌会随着年龄增长而减少。约25%的老年人患有口腔干燥及相关不适。然而，关于健康老年人刺激唾液流速的数据显示，除了在最小或延长刺激条件下（浆液）黏液腺分泌略有减少外，未发现与年龄相关的显著下降。关于唾液腺形态和唾液成分，健康个体中也有与年龄相关的变化报道。随着年龄的增长，腺泡数量减少，脂肪和纤维组织增多。此外，动物研究表明，老年时蛋白质合成减少60%。这些数据表明，唾液有机成分的浓度和/或活性可能会发生变化。在人体研究中，唇腺唾液中sIgA的浓度以及黏液唾液中高分子和低分子黏蛋白的浓度似乎会随着年龄增长而降低。由于sIgA和黏蛋白在口腔的免疫和非免疫防御中很重要，健康老年人的这两种防御系统都会减弱。对这些数据的分析表明，由于免疫和非免疫防御系统的减弱，口腔软组织可能会对环境因素变得更易敏感。
