Table 3.

Studies reporting effects and interactions of SSH and oral mucosa.

	Androgens	Estrogens
Mucosa
Receptors	Buccal mucosal cells express AR (118).	ER is expressed in buccal mucosa of pre- and post-menopausal women (119). ERβ is expressed in buccal mucosa of men and women (39).
Wound healing	Wound healing in vivo decreases with age regardless of sex and is significantly slower in females than in males regardless of age (120). Wound healing in vivo is faster in young individuals with low testosterone levels. In post-menopausal women, a faster healing correlates with higher testosterone levels in blood (121).
Cytokine production		Estradiol downregulates expression of hBD-2, IL-6 and IL-8 in hOMEC (122).

AR, androgen receptor; ER, estrogen receptor; hOMEC, human oral mucosal epithelial cells.