The presence of platelet-activating factor (PAF) in normal human mixed saliva.

This report describes PAF activity in normal human mixed saliva from each of 24 randomly selected donors. The human salivary PAF (HS-PAF) was similar to rabbit basophil PAF (acetyl glyceryl ether phosphorylcholine or AGEPC) with respect to the following characteristics: 1. HS-PAF co-chromatographed with the standard rabbit basophil AGEPC and with synthetic AGEPC. 2. HS-PAF and AGEPC were unaffected by hirudin, indomethacin, and creatine phosphate/creatine phosphokinase, the respective inhibitors of platelet activation induced by thrombin, arachidonic acid, and ADP. 3. HS-PAF and AGEPC were inactivated by a 5-min incubation with ALF, the acid-labile factor in normal human serum that rapidly destroys AGEPC. 4. HS-PAF was demonstrated to be functionally similar to AGEPC by cross-desensitization experiments. In the absence of Ca++, HS-PAF and AGEPC cross-desensitized washed rabbit platelets to subsequent stimulation by either HS-PAF or AGEPC after recalcification. 5. HS-PAF was demonstrated to be structurally similar to AGEPC by several simple chemical tests for functional groups.