Dental News - Human saliva could help heal bodily wounds

Human saliva could help heal bodily wounds

Researchers in Chile have found that human saliva could be viable in the healing of wounds on the body. (Photograph: sruilk/Shutterstock)

Dental Tribune International

Thu. 10. August 2017

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SANTIAGO, Chile: Saliva has always been understood to aid in healing, and in a new study examining why wounds in the mouth tend to heal faster and better than wounds elsewhere on the body, researchers may have found the answer. Examining the effects of salivary peptide histatin-1 on angiogenesis (blood vessel formation), which is critical to the efficiency of wound healing, they found that histatin-1 promotes angiogenesis and cell adhesion and migration.

Conducted at the Institute for Research in Dental Sciences of the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Chile in Santiago, the study involved experiments at three levels: endothelial, or blood vessel-forming, cells in culture; chicken embryos as animal models; and human saliva samples obtained from healthy donors. Looking at these three models, the study found that histatin-1 and saliva increase blood vessel formation.

“These findings open new alternatives to better understand the biology underlying the differences between oral and skin wound healing,” said co-author Dr. Vicente A. Torres, an associate professor at the institute. “We believe that the study could help the design of better approaches to improve wound healing in tissues other than the mouth.”

The researchers are now taking the next step in this line of study, using these molecules to generate materials and implants to aid in wound healing.

The study, titled “The salivary peptide histatin-1 promotes endothelial cell adhesion, migration, and angiogenesis,” was published online on July 27 ahead of print in the FASEB Journal. Commenting on the research, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Thoru Pederson said, “The clear results of the present study open a wide door to a therapeutic advance. They also bring to mind the possible meaning of animals, and often children, ‘licking their wounds.’”