Histatins enhance wound closure with oral and non-oral cells

The role of human saliva in oral wound-healing has never been fully elucidated. We previously demonstrated that parotid-salivary histatins enhance in vitro wound closure. The question remains whether other salivary-gland secretions enhance wound closure, and also the effects of histatins on primary and non-oral cells. Since the presence of histatins is not limited to parotid saliva, we expected to observe wound-closure activity of other salivary-gland secretions. However, here we show that non-parotid saliva does not stimulate wound closure, most probably due to the presence of mucins, since the addition of MUC5B to parotid saliva abolished its effect. Furthermore, we found that histatins stimulated wound closure of (primary) cells of both oral and non-oral origin. This suggests that the cellular receptor of histatins is widely expressed and not confined to cells derived from the oral cavity. These findings encourage the future therapeutic application of histatins in the treatment of all kinds of wounds.