Abstract
This chapter briefly describes the key elements of salivary gland structure, their products, and their various functions, concluding with a discussion of how they control the oral microbiota in conjunction with oral hygiene (Sect. 1). Following a brief discussion of secretion (Sect. 2), there is a detailed description of the mucous proteins and their glycans (Sect. 3) and their relationship to glycans at the red blood cell surface (Sect. 4). The chapter concludes with a detailed description of the structure and functioning of the salivary amylase (Sect. 5) and its proline-rich proteins and salivary agglutinin (Sect. 6).
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© 2011 Springer Berlin Heidelberg
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Levine, M. (2011). Saliva. In: Topics in Dental Biochemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88116-2_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88116-2_12
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-88115-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-88116-2
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