title: Salivary immunoreactive endothelin in patients with upper gastrointestinal diseases.
abstract: Endothelins have been implicated in gastric mucosal damage in a variety of animal models. Furthermore, clinical reports also show elevated gastric mucosal endothelin-1 levels in patients suffering from peptic ulcer diseases. We have demonstrated, first, the presence of immunoreactive endothelin (IR-ET) in human saliva. We also show that endothelins are rather stable in human saliva. The present study was undertaken to determine whether patients with endoscopically proven upper gastrointestinal diseases have a salivary excess of IR-ET, compared with patients with a normal esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Saliva was collected from fasting subjects prior to esophagogastroduodenoscopy. The levels of IR-ET were measured by the radioimmunoassay method. The salivary concentrations of IR-ET in the studied subjects were as follows: 8.9 +/- 1.0 fmol/mL (mean +/- standard error of the mean) for patients with gastric ulcers (n = 18); 7.3 +/- 1.0 fmol/mL for patients with duodenal ulcers (n = 22); and 6.8 +/- 0.6 fmol/mL for patients with gastritis (n = 28). These values are all higher than that of normal subjects (4.4 +/- 0.5 fmol/mL, n = 20; P < 0.001, P < 0.01, and P < 0.05, respectively). No significant differences in salivary IR-ET were noted between patients with a normal esophagogastroduodenoscopy and patients with esophagitis (3.8 +/- 0.7 fmol/mL, n = 4) or gastric cancer (5.3 +/- 1.4 fmol/mL, n = 4). There were no significant differences in the salivary IR-ET levels between males and females. However, the salivary IR-ET levels in the smokers (8.0 +/- 0.6 fmol/mL, n = 38) were significantly higher (P < 0.01) than those of the non-smokers (6.0 +/- 0.4 fmol/mL, n = 58). There was no correlation of IR-ET levels with age. Our findings suggest that salivary endothelin may have a contributing role in certain gastroduodenal diseases.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Research, Department of Medical Education and Research, Kaohsiung Veterans GeneralHospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China. hclam@isca.vghks.gov.tw
authors.forename: Hing-Chung
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: Gin-Ho
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Jenn-Kuen
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chih-Chen
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Chih-Hsun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Chun-Chin
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ming-Ju
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Mei-Chun
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D004381:Duodenal Ulcer / Q000378:metabolism; D016145:Endoscopy, Digestive System; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000032:analysis*; D019333:Endothelin-2 / Q000032:analysis; D019334:Endothelin-3 / Q000032:analysis; D004941:Esophagitis / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005756:Gastritis / Q000378:metabolism; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry*; D012907:Smoking / Q000378:metabolism; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry; D013276:Stomach Ulcer / Q000378:metabolism; D013624:Taiwan; D015854:Up-Regulation; D041742:Upper Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D019332:Endothelin-1; D019333:Endothelin-2; D019334:Endothelin-3