Looking for osteoporosis in spit
By Janet Raloff
Roger B. Johnson, a dentist, suspected that he and his colleagues could routinely check their patients for chronic diseases when they come in for teeth cleanings and check-ups. Because gum disease offers one indicator of weakening bone, or osteoporosis, Johnson wondered if there are other oral markers of the disease. He now reports finding three compounds in saliva that could serve as the basis for gauging bone loss.
Working with Johnson on a yearlong study, veterinarians removed the ovaries of six adult ewes to mimic menopause in women, whose hormone changes can foster bone loss. At 4-month intervals, Johnson’s team at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson sampled saliva, blood, and urine from these animals and from another half dozen ewes with intact ovaries. At the end of a year, all of the animals were slaughtered and the researchers made precise density measurements of quarter-inch-thick slices of the animals’ leg bones.