Saliva is secreted from the acinar cells of the salivary glands, using mechanisms that are similar to other types of water-transporting epithelial cells. Using a combination of theoretical and experimental techniques, over the past 20 years we have continually developed and modified a quantitative model of saliva secretion, and how it is controlled by the dynamics of intracellular calcium. However, over approximately the past 5 years there have been significant developments both in our understanding of the underlying mechanisms and in the way these mechanisms should best be modelled. Here, we review the traditional understanding of how saliva is secreted, and describe how our work has suggested important modifications to this traditional view. We end with a brief description of the most recent data from living animals and discuss how this is now contributing to yet another iteration of model construction and experimental investigation.

唾液是从唾液腺的腺泡细胞中分泌出来的，使用的机制类似于其他类型的输水上皮细胞。在过去的 20 年里，我们结合理论和实验技术，不断开发和修改唾液分泌的定量模型，以及它如何受细胞内钙动力学的控制。然而，在过去大约 5 年中，我们对潜在机制的理解以及这些机制的最佳建模方式都取得了重大进展。在这里，我们回顾了对唾液分泌方式的传统理解，并描述了我们的工作如何建议对这一传统观点进行重要修改。