Abstract
BackgroundSteroid hormone test for saliva was a promising area of research, however the impact of different collection methods on salivary steroids was underexplored so far. This study was designed to compare the effects of different collection methods (unstimulated or stimulated by chewing paraffin, forepart or midstream) on salivary flow rate, concentrations and secretion rates of steroids in saliva.MethodsWhole-saliva samples were collected from 10 systemically and orally healthy participants, whose forepart and midstream segments of saliva were collected under unstimulated and stimulated conditions, with the salivary flow rate of each sample recorded. The concentrations and secretion rates of salivary steroids including testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and progesterone were measured by ELISA, with the multiple of change calculated.ResultsThe results indicated mechanical stimulation used in collection of saliva samples could affect concentrations and secretion rates of steroids, whereas forepart and midstream segments had little differences in levels of salivary steroids, which effects could be partly influenced by individual specificity. The asynchronism in change of secretion rate of steroids with that of salivary flow rate might play an important role during this course.ConclusionBased on these findings, we suggested to use the same collection method throughout one analytical study on salivary steroids or in longitudinal observations to ensure the comparability of the saliva samples collected.
Highlights
Steroid hormone test for saliva was a promising area of research, the impact of different collection methods on salivary steroids was underexplored so far
Comparative analysis of concentrations of steroids in saliva The three kinds of salivary steroids exhibited relatively similar patterns in comparison of concentration of steroids between saliva samples collected with different methods
40.0 ± 11.0% for DHEA, and 56.8% ± 24.5% for progesterone, respectively. These results indicated that mechanical stimulation by chewing paraffin could result in attenuation of concentrations of salivary steroids when compared with unstimulated condition
Summary
Steroid hormone test for saliva was a promising area of research, the impact of different collection methods on salivary steroids was underexplored so far. Zhu et al BMC Oral Health (2021) 21:352 to present the secretion rhythm precisely and control the dose of hormones effectively [14, 15] In this context, the utilization of saliva for monitoring the level of steroids had attracted growing attention in medical research and clinical applications in the recent few years. Some researchers believed that salivary steroids were not affected by external stimulation as they derived from blood by passive diffusion in the unbound form [9, 18] This problem might be more complicated than they expected as some other studies demonstrated that chewing gum could interfere with the assessment of certain categories of steroids, but there were conflicting results from different studies on the same steroids [19,20,21,22,23]. The effects of collection methods (unstimulated versus stimulated) on levels of salivary steroids remained controversial at present
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