Salivary exoglycosidases in gestational diabetes

Introduction: As exoglycosidases have been described as potential markers of salivary gland pathology, we decided to check the possibility of the use of these enzymes in the detection of salivary gland involvement in gestational diabetes.Materials and methods: For this purpose diabetic pregnant women were compared to pregnant and non-pregnant healthy women. The activities of total HEX as well as GLU in the saliva were determined in duplicate according to Marciniak et al. The activities of GAL, FUC, and MAN in the saliva were determined in duplicate according to Zwierz et al.Results: It was found that the specific activities of exoglycosidases in the saliva of diabetic pregnant women significantly increased in comparison to healthy pregnant and non-pregnant women.Conclusion: Increased specific activity of exoglycosidases suggests that gestational diabetes provokes structural/functional alterations in salivary glands and changes in the salivary glycoconjugates metabolism.