Abstract
The saliva of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma was subjected to reversed-phase HPLC, and a peak (P 14) was eluted with a linear gradient of acetonitrile. The molecular weight of P14 was 3442 daltons by mass spectrometry. The results of amino acid sequencing by Edman degradation and homology studies indicated that P14 was consistent with a peptide, human α-defensin 1 (HNP-1) which belongs to the defensin family. The concentration of HNP-1 in the saliva of 6 squamous cell carcinoma patients before surgery and 11 after surgery was 12.3 ± 8.6 and 6.5 ± 5.9 μg/ml (mean ± S.D.), respectively. In contrast, minimal amounts of HNP-1 were found in the saliva of adenocarcinoma patients and healthy volunteers. The concentration of salivary HNP-1 correlated positively with serum squamous cell carcinoma related antigen (SCC-Ag) level (r = 0.879, p < 0.01).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4645-4649 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Anticancer research |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 6 B |
| Publication status | Published - 1998 |
Keywords
- Defensin-1
- Reversed-phase HPLC
- SCC-Ag
- Saliva
- Squamous cell carcinoma
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research
