Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Secretory immunity is believed to play a role in natural
resistance to dental caries. Although dental caries has dramatically
decreased in children in the United States, there remains a
population of caries-susceptible children even in fluoridated
communities. Previous studies have shown a positive correlation
between salivary immunoglobulin A (sIgA) antibody levels to
Streptococcus mutans and caries resistance in adults. In the
present study, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was
used to compare IgA antibody levels to S. mutans in saliva from 20
caries susceptible (DMFS greater than 5) and 20 caries-resistant
(DMFS less than or equal to 1) children (ages 7-11). All subjects
resided in fluoridated communities. Salivary S. mutans numbers
were significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) in the caries susceptible (31.2
percent of total streptococci) group than in the caries resistant (1.6
percent of total streptococci) group. Whole saliva from caries-resistant
children had significantly higher (p = 0.05) levels of IgA
antibodies to S. mutans than saliva from caries-susceptible
children. However, whole saliva from caries-resistant children had
similar levels of IgA1 or IgA2 antibodies against S. mutans to saliva
from caries-susceptible children. These results suggest that IgA
antibody to S. mutans may play a role in natural protection from
dental caries in children and confirm previous reports indicating a
role for salivary IgA antibodies to S. mutans in mediation of caries.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:IUPUI/oai:scholarworks.iupui.edu:1805/4377 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Rose, Paul Todd |
| Contributors | Hughes, Christopher V., Avery, David R., Sanders, Brian J., Branca, Ronald A., Gregory, Richard L. |
| Source Sets | Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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