title: Optical Coherence Tomography of the Labial Salivary Glands Reveals Age-Related Differences in Women.
abstract: The labial minor salivary glands (LSGs) play a role in medical research and practice due to their superficial location and involvement in both systemic and localized diseases. Swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive modality that enables in vivo, micrometer resolution, wide-field three-dimensional imaging in seconds. A purpose-built swept-source OCT instrument was employed to acquire three-dimensional datasets covering the area of 2.43 cm(2) of the mucosa of the lower lip to the depth of 3.4 mm in young (n = 14; mean age ± SD: 27 ± 3 years; body mass index [BMI] 20.4 ± 2.3 kg/m(2) ) and middle-aged women (n = 11; 54 ± 6 years; 25.5 ± 3.2 kg/m(2) ). Glandular tissue reflectivity mode (range 0-255; 86 ± 17 vs. 68 ± 12, p = 0.005), average single LSG area in tissue sample (5.26 ± 2.62 mm(2) vs. 2.87 ± 1.26 mm(2) , p = 0.011), and LSG surface filling factor (0.23 ± 0.13 vs. 0.11 ± 0.10, p = 0.027) had higher values in younger than in middle-aged women. A correlation between BMI and glandular tissue reflectivity mode (Spearman's ρ = -0.60) was found (p = 0.002). The results highlight the potential value of LSGs' OCT morphometry in research regarding ageing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Metabolic Diseases, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland.
authors.forename: Jan Krzysztof
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Nowak
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Torun, Poland.
authors.forename: Ireneusz
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Grulkowski
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Torun, Poland.
authors.forename: Karol
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karnowski
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Institute of Physics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Torun, Poland.
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wojtkowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Metabolic Diseases, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland.
authors.forename: Jaroslaw
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Walkowiak
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008046:Lip; D008875:Middle Aged; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ageing; lip; minor salivary gland; obesity; optical biopsy