Physiologic variation of sucrase activity and microbial counts in human saliva

Quantitation of salivary sucrase activity has been proposed as a method for the estimation of the level of sucrose consumption. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the physiologic variability of the sucrase activity and microbial counts in paraffin-wax-stimulated saliva of subjects with sound sucrose consumption habits. Variation was analyzed by repeated sampling studies. Intraday variability was investigated by serial analyses of 16 individuals who gave eight samples at 2-h intervals on a single day. Interday variation was studied by analyzing the morning value of 24 individuals on three consecutive days. Interday variability of salivary mutans streptococci, lactobacilli, and yeasts was tested using semiquantitative commercial test kits. The diurnal variation of sucrase activity revealed that the activity in the morning was significantly higher than at noon or at later sampling times of the day. Interday variation was considerable in subjects with high sucrase values. The day-to-day variability of the salivary microbes was considerable for lactobacilli and relatively small for yeasts. A weak positive correlation ranging from 0.732 to 0.741 was found between high sucrase activity values and salivary lactobacilli. Salivary samples should be collected in the morning to differentiate between subjects with high and low sucrase activities.