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Salivary composition in obese vs normal-weight subjects: towards a role in postprandial lipid metabolism?

Abstract

In the pathophysiological context of obesity, oral exposure to dietary fat can modulate lipid digestion and absorption, but underlying in-mouth mechanisms have not been clearly identified. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that salivary components related to dietary fat sensitivity would differ according to body mass index (BMI) and postprandial lipid metabolism in young men. Saliva was collected from nine normal-weight (BMI=22.3±0.5 kg m2) and nine non-morbid obese (BMI=31.7±0.3 kg m2) men before an 8-h postprandial metabolic exploration test involving the consumption of a 40-g fat meal, in which obese subjects revealed a delayed postprandial lipid metabolism. Nine salivary characteristics (flow, protein content, lipolysis, amylase, proteolysis, total antioxidant status, lysozyme, lipocalin 1 and carbonic anhydrase-VI) were investigated. We show that, under fasting conditions, salivary lipolysis was lower in obese vs normal-weight subjects, whereas proteolysis and carbonic anhydrase VI were higher. We reveal through multivariate and Mann–Whitney analysis that differences in fasting salivary lipolysis and proteolysis between both groups are related to differences in postprandial lipid metabolism including exogenous fatty-acid absorption and β-oxidation. These results suggest a potential role of salivary composition on postprandial lipid metabolism and bring novel causal hypotheses on the links between salivary composition, sensitivity to dietary fat oral income and postprandial lipid metabolism according to BMI.

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Acknowledgements

CV acknowledges her PhD grant from INRA and CNIEL. GF thanks the Burgundy Regional Council for funding. MCM thanks CNIEL for funding the clinical trial. We thank Hélène Brignot for technical assistance. Yvonne Masson is acknowledged for revising the English language. We thank the volunteers and the team of CRNH-RA for their involvement. This work was supported by the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), the Burgundy Region (The Regional Council) and the Centre National Interprofessionnel de l’Economie Laitière (CNIEL).

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Correspondence to M-C Michalski.

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Vors, C., Drai, J., Gabert, L. et al. Salivary composition in obese vs normal-weight subjects: towards a role in postprandial lipid metabolism?. Int J Obes 39, 1425–1428 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2015.71

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