Isolation and Determination of Lactoferrin in Human Saliva
Keywords:
lactoferrin, saliva, ion-exchange liquid chromatography, photometric detectionAbstract
Lactoferrin, a globular glycoprotein, is an important component of saliva. It shows an antibacterial, anticancerogenic and anti-inflammatory activity. The aim of this study was to develop a method of isolation of lactoferrin from human saliva using ion exchange chromatography in a monolithic column and spectrometric detection with Pyrogallol Red by the Bradford and biuret methods. The calibration curve for lactoferrin was linear in the range 0.06–62.5 μg ml–1, limit of detection 0.01 μg ml–1. The lactoferin concentration in saliva of healthy subjects was 42±4 μg mg–1. Patient with celiac disease showed 2.5×times higher concentration of lactoferrin compared with healthy subjects.