Long-term administration of whey alters atrophy, gene expression profiles and dysfunction of salivary glands in elderly rats

Salivary glands in elderly individuals commonly exhibit morphological changes and dysfunction resulting in xerostomia. Long-term (4-week) drinking of whey prevented and/or restored age-dependent decline of salivary volume and protein concentration, and atrophy of sublingual glands (SLGs) significantly in 88-week-old rats. The transcripts of 42 genes were up-regulated and 7 genes were down-regulated by more than 1.5-fold change with FDR ≦ 0.1 after whey-drinking. The expression levels of genes associated with salivary proteins and tissue repair were significantly increased, while those associated with lipid metabolism were decreased. Venn diagram analysis revealed that expressions of 13 genes, including Tcfap2b and Abpa, were induced significantly by whey-drinking. Furthermore, secretory protein levels in SLGs and saliva were revealed by immunoblot analysis. This is the first study to report that whey-administration can prevent and/or restore age-dependent atrophy and functional decline of SLGs in relation to gene expression and thus may serve as a functional food ingredient.

内容要旨・審査要旨・論文本文の公開:
内容要旨 : LID201611151001.pdf
審査要旨 : LID201611151002.pdf
論文本文 : LID201702061004.pdf
著者の申請により要約(2016-11-15公開)に替えて論文本文を公開(2017-02-06)
本論文は, 著者Tomasz D Pieczonkaの学位論文として提出され, 学位審査・授与の対象となっている。

© 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/