[Analysis of the effectiveness of pilocarpine in the management of xerostomia].

The authors have studied the "sympathetic like" side effect of pilocarpine after single injection (1 mg/100 g b.w., i.p.) of the drug. They developed a system for the continuous automatic recording the amylase activity of the saliva secreted by the parotid glands of rats, "in situ". Pilocarpine stimulus was characterized by a peak in amylase activity--regularly observed in the first 40-60 min--which was additive to the cholinergic amylase secretory response. After this the amylase secretion was continued with lower activity. The role of a beta-adrenergic component in the pilocarpine stimulus appears to be supported by the finding that propranolol (2.5 mg/100 g b.w., i.p.) pretreatment applied 30 min prior to the pilocarpine stimulus prevented the appearance of the characteristic amylase peak. These data support that the beta-adrenergic side effect triggering the periodical synthesis of export proteins during the course of pilocarpine treatment accounts for the selative efficiency of pilocarpine in the therapy of xerostomia.