Variations in salivary function in a rodent model of pre-diabetes.

Diabetes is a widespread disease representing an enormous part of the total health costs. An early diagnostic could be of extremely importance both for the understanding and prevention of this pathology. Saliva is a fluid with increasing interest as a source of biomarkers for disease diagnostic and saliva protein composition changes have already been reported for diabetic individuals. However, the studies were performed after the onset of the disease and it is unknown if salivary changes are presente in the early stages of development of the disease or a characteristic of overt diabetes. Wistar rats have been selected for their glucose intolerance (GIR). GIR females were compared with Wistar females with normal glucose tolerance (control) for changes in saliva protein composition and salivary gland histology. Fasting glycemias were observed to be normal (