Salivary cortisol is now extensively used for screening and following patients with various conditions where the regulation of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis is abnormal, for example in major depression where salivary cortisol levels show a disruption or loss of the circadian rhythm. Annexin 1 is a glucocorticoid-induced protein, which is responsible for mediating several anti-inflammatory actions of glucocorticoids as well as being involved in glucocorticoid negative feedback inhibition. Evidence from histological studies of human oral cavity demonstrate that annexin 1 protein is highly expressed in the epithelium of the tongue and oral cavity as well as the submandibular, parotid and small salivary glands. Western blotting data from the applicant’s laboratory, using an early morning (7am) saliva sample shows that immunoreactive annexin 1 protein can be detected in human saliva. Annexin 1 was also measured using an in-house sandwich ELISA on saliva samples from healthy human subjects. The annexin 1 measured in these samples displayed a positive trend with the cortisol diurnal rhythm suggesting that salivary annexin 1 is under cortisol regulation.
The aims of this study are to 1) investigate which factors regulate human salivary annexin 1 expression; 2) determine whether salivary annexin 1 is altered by various oral pathologies, including severe periodontal disease and oral cancers; 3) investigate whether salivary annexin 1 is altered during exercise (in response to inflammatory mediators produced during exercise); 4) determine a physiological role for salivary annexin 1 ie anti-microbial/anti-inflammatory effects.
This PhD is supervised by Dr D Renshaw and will be based in the School of Biosciences at the University of Westminster. The closing date for applications is
24 April 2008. For more information, please click on the link below.
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