Abstract
The human oral bacteria cultured from samples of mixed saliva and plaque produced extracellular glucan and fructan when exposed to sucrose. The amounts and proportions of these components varied widely with the experimental conditions. The fructan, in contrast to the glucan, was always found to be labile in the presence of the oral bacteria when the excess sucrose had been removed. An invertase preparation obtained from baker's yeast was capable of degrading the fructan. It is suggested that a similar type of mechanism may be present in dental plaque. Both artificial and human plaque were shown to produce fructan in situ in amounts that were proportional to the concentration and time of exposure to sucrose. The fructan was rapidly degraded when the sucrose was removed. It is proposed that the labile nature of the fructan present in plaque may contribute significantly to the caries process.
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