Caries-free subjects have high levels of urease and arginine deiminase activity

• Autor(a) principal: REYES,Evelyn
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: MARTIN,Javier, MONCADA,Gustavo, NEIRA,Miguel, PALMA,Patricia, GORDAN,Valeria, OYARZO,Juan Fernando, YEVENES,Ismael
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of applied oral science (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-77572014000300235
• topic: Alkali; Arginine; Dental plaque; Saliva; Urease; Dental caries

Objectives: This study investigated the relationship between urease and arginine deiminase system (ADS) activities and dental caries through a cross-sectional study. Material and Methods: Urease and ADS activities were measured in saliva and plaque samples from 10 caries-free subjects and 13 caries-active. Urease activity was obtained from the ammonia produced by incubation of plaque and saliva samples in urea. ADS activity was obtained from the ammonia generated by the arginine-HCl and Tris-maleate buffer. Specific activity was defined as micromoles of ammonia per minute per milligram of protein. Shapiro-Wilk statistical test was used to analyze the distribution of the data, and Mann-Whitney test was used to determine the significance of the data. Results: The specific urease activity in saliva and plaque was significantly higher in individuals with low DMFT scores. ADS activity in saliva (6.050 vs 1.350, p=0.0154) and plaque (8.830 vs 1.210, p=0.025) was also higher in individuals with low DMFT scores. Conclusions: Caries-free subjects had a higher ammonia generation activity by urease and arginine deiminase system for both saliva and plaque samples than low caries-active subjects. High levels of alkali production in oral environment were related to caries-free subjects.