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CAMBRIDGE, Mass., USA: A new study has suggested that evaluating specific salivary biomarker concentrations could be a useful alternative to repeated blood sampling to determine the risk of metabolic diseases in obese children. Scientists hope that the results of this study will contribute to the development of noninvasive screening tools for early diagnosis and prevention of diabetes and other systemic diseases.
In the study, researchers evaluated saliva samples from 744 Kuwaiti 10- to 12-year-olds, who were either underweight, of normal weight, overweight or obese. The researchers screened the samples for 20 biomarkers and found that four of them changed significantly with increasing obesity.
In obese children, salivary insulin and leptin levels were almost three times higher, and salivary C-reactive protein was almost six times higher compared with normal weight children. In addition, adiponectin was about 30 percent lower in the obese group.
According to the researchers, elevated plasma insulin is characteristic of Type 2 diabetes and a number of human studies have associated high levels of C-reactive protein with the disease. Thus, they suggested that screening saliva could help identify children at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
"The importance of prevention is obvious, and to truly be preventative, we must focus on the children," said Dr. J. Max Goodson from the Forsyth Institute, an independent research institute in the U.S. specializing in oral health and related conditions, which conducted the study. "This study is exciting because noninvasive methods are critical when dealing with children. Salivary diagnostics could provide a more acceptable alternative, which could create a new paradigm for research in preventive health," he said.
The children in this study were participants of the Kuwait Healthy Life Study, a longitudinal cohort investigation of more than 8,000 children that is being conducted in partnership with the Forsyth Institute. Data and saliva samples were collected during 182 visits to 39 Kuwaiti schools between October 2011 and May 2012.
The study, titled "Metabolic Disease Risk in Children by Salivary Biomarker Analysis," was published online on June 10 in the PLOS ONE journal.
