Saliva and fetal life

Abstract

In humans, Textbooks usually highlight the important roles of saliva in chewing and swallowing, contribution of digestive enzymes and taste, protection and healing of the oral cavity, and speech. However, in the present review by Cabras and colleagues (published in this issue), using non-invasive collection of saliva, the reader is brought into a new unexplored territory for salivary research in humans: the composition of saliva of preterm newborns and the potential functions of saliva and salivary glands during fetal development – is there, for instance, a trophic role for saliva to play?

The use of saliva in clinical practice, with its non-invasive technique, makes great promise of a wide area of applications for diagnostic and prognostic purposes, a major prerequisite for progress and success being, however, solid knowledge in the biochemistry of saliva. A steady flow of well-written, outstanding salivary proteomic studies has emerged over the years from the Cagliari-Rome team, and continues to do so. This review summarizes a gigantic analytic work over more than two decades using top-modern equipment and illustrates how today the coordination of various research groups on a common topic can generate significant prog­ress aimed at characterizing the molecular events underlying human life.