RESUMO
The aim of this study was to quantify the amount of delmopinol recovered in different molecular weight ranges of salivary proteins in the supernatant and pellet of delmopinol-saliva mixes. Unstimulated whole saliva was collected from 5 subjects and mixed with radiolabeled delmopinol to obtain a final drug concentration of 9.7 mM. The salivary-delmopinol solutions were incubated and then centrifuged. The resulting pellets and supernatants were studied in an electrophoresis assay. Each individual sample was run in three different electrophoretic gel lanes. The first lane was stained with silver dyes; the second lane was used for electrophoretic blotting and autoradiography; the third lane was cut in standard slices that were dissolved and analyzed with scintillation counting. The scintillation results demonstrated that higher radioactivity levels were detected at high molecular weight ranges (700-600 kDa). Furthermore, pellet samples were found to contain the highest amounts of delmopinol. The autoradiography results confirmed that delmopinol was bound to proteins of high molecular weight (700-600 kDa).