[Macromolecular inhibitors of crystallization in saliva and bile]

The current knowledges concerning macromolecular inhibitors of crystallization in saliva and in bile are reviewed. In saliva, four families of inhibiting proteins have been evidenced: the statherins, the acidic proline-rich proteins, the cystatins and the histatins. These proteins inhibit the nucleation and the growth of calcium phosphate salts. In the bile, two families of proteins that inhibit the nucleation of calcium carbonate and cholesterol are present: the apolipoproteins and the calcium binding protein also called anionic polypeptide fraction. The structure-function relationships of these molecules are particularly stressed.