[Bone remodeling markers in saliva as compared to serum in rats]

Bone markers are useful tools to measure bone remodeling; currently they are assessed in serum and urinary samples; however there is little information concerning their measurement in saliva. The present experimental study evaluates the possibility to measure collagen type I carboxiterminal telopeptide (CTX) and bone alkaline phosphatase (b-AP) in saliva, its correlation with serum samples in normal conditions and in the increase of the bone remodeling due to estrogen deficiency. Twenty four normal adult Wistar rats (300 +/- 20 g) [12 SHAM and 12 rats after 1 week of bilateral ovariectomy (OVX)] were studied. Fasting serum and total saliva after stimulation with pilocarpine were collected. In both samples were measured: CTX (ng/ml) by ELISA (RatLabs, Osteometer Bio Tech, Denmark) and b-AP (IU/L) (Wiener, colorimetrically). Both CTX and b-AL in serum samples were significantly higher in OVX than in SHAM rats (15.3 +/- 4.0 vs. 21.8 +/- 6.4, p < 0.05 y 71 +/- 29 vs. 104 +/- 23; p < 0.01, respectively). Saliva presented the same behaviour (3.6 +/- 0.5 vs. 6.4 +/- 2.9; p < 0.02 y 73 +/- 29 vs. 90 +/- 8; p < 0.003, respectively). When saliva CTX and b-AP were plotted against serum concentration significant positive correlations were obtained: r = 0.58, p < 0.05 and r = 0.59; p < 0.05, respectively. In conclusion, the present results are promisory in the sense of the potential use of a salivary-based test for evaluating bone remodeling. However, the use of this methodology for clinical practice needs extensive additional investigations.