Aminopeptidase activity in human saliva

Abstract

In this work, different aminopeptidase activity levels in whole human saliva are described. Aminopeptidase activities were studied by measuring the rate of hydrolysis of the artificial substrates Ala-, pGlu-, Pro-, Arg-, Asp- y Cis-2-naphthylamides (fluorimetrically detected at 412 rim with excitation at 345 nm). The presence of these enzyme activities in the saliva suggests that the active levels of saliva peptides can be controlled by homeostatic mechanism similar to those that have been described in other tissues, such as plasma, the central nervous system, and immunocompetent cells.