Fig. 1

Salivary and Mucosal Barriers and Responses. Free-floating cells and proteins found within saliva will prevent microbes from disrupting the mucosal epithelial layer. At the moment of infection or cell damage within the epithelial layer, the targeted cell will send signals out to dendritic cells that will then migrate to the lymph nodes and mature in the form of APCs. These APC’s will then activate subsets of T cells (CD8⁺ or CD4⁺) responsible for the activation of the humoral or cellular response which can either alleviate infections or exacerbate inflammation