Abstract
ALTHOUGH there has been speculation about the healing powers of saliva, recent interest in the salivary glands has been concerned with the physiology of nerve growth factor and epidermal growth factor1–4. However, saliva also contains other biologically active substances such as kallikrein5,6, amylase7, lysozyme8, immunoglobulins9 and renin10. Lysozyme is believed to enhance healing by suppressing infection11. The wound healing process can be divided into epithelialisation, contraction, collagen synthesis and scar remodelling12: the evidence presented here suggests that contraction is affected by the salivary glands.
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HUTSON, J., NIALL, M., EVANS, D. et al. Effect of salivary glands on wound contraction in mice. Nature 279, 793–795 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/279793a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/279793a0
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