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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Salivary lipolytic activity seems to modulate the basal free fatty acid concentration in human saliva

subject

description

The perception of fat is a complex sensation that involves various sensory modalities, such as texture, aroma and taste. Taste perception is supported by the discovery of fatty acid receptors in the tongue papillae. However, dietary fat is mainly composed of esterified fatty acids, whereas only free fatty acids can bind to taste receptors. In this context, the literature often mentioned the necessity and efficiency of a salivary lipolytic activity to hydrolyse the esterified fatty acids present in foods and enable fat perception. We made a complementary hypothesis in which salivary lipolytic activity is also involved in regulating the basal level of salivary fatty acids in saliva. To test this hypothesis, we measured total fatty acid (TFA) and free fatty acid (FFA ) concentrations and selected salivary characteristics (such as lipolytic activity) in the resting saliva of 54 subjects. We found differences in the TFA and FFA profiles, with TFA and FFA concentrations of 8.99 and 3.56 µg/mL of saliva, respectively. Lipolytic activity was strongly and significantly positively correlated with FFA concentration (0.52, p<0.001) but not with TFA concentration. In conclusion, this result highlights a possible physiological role of salivary lipolytic activity in the regulation of the basal FFA concentration. This regulation could be involved in fat taste perception.