Differences of Saliva Composition in Relation to Tooth Decay and Gender

Abstract

Most people worldwide suffer from dental caries. Only a small part of the population is cariesresistant and the reason for this resistance in unknown. Only a few studies compared the saliva protein composition of persons with carious teeth and persons with no caries. Our study is the first to relate proteomic analysis of the caries aetiology with gender. In this study, we compared the differences in the abundances of proteins in the saliva between cariesresistant and caries-susceptible females and males by nano-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (Label-Free Quantitative Proteomics). Our results demonstrate that the observed differences in the protein levels might have an influence on anticaries resistance. A total of 19 potential markers of tooth caries were found, for example proteins S100A8 and annexin A1 with higher expression in the cariessusceptible group in comparison with the caries-free group and mucin-5B, lactoferrin, lysozyme C with higher expression in the caries-free group in comparison with the caries-susceptible group. The presented study is the first complex proteomic and gender project where the saliva protein content of caries-free and caries-susceptible persons were compared by label-free MS. The newly detected potential protein markers of dental caries can be a good basis for further research and for possible future therapeutic use.