Association of salivary proteins with dental caries in a Colombian population.

Saliva has an important role in maintaining normal conditions of the oral tissues. Variability in salivary composition determines its protective characteristics against dental caries. Knowledge of the molecular content of saliva in humans is important to better understand its protective properties. The aim of the present work was to recognize protein composition in whole saliva of subjects with active caries (AC), History of caries (HC), and free of caries (H) in a Colombian population, by electrophoretic pattern, and to correlate these results with clinical diagnoses. Patients over 18 years old were selected after clinical examinations, and classified into three study groups. After patients signed the informed consent form, whole saliva samples were collected. Total protein determinations were made using the Bradford method. Individual saliva samples were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and related to DMFT indexes. The gels were analyzed by Quantity One 1-D software (BIO-RAD). No statistically significant difference was found between the total protein concentration and absence of prior experience of dental decay. Total protein content was higher in female subjects (p = 0.0028) than male, and regarding the disease, it was higher in women with HC and AC. Salivary proteins present in the majority of individuals were 101, 77, 62, 55, 44, 22 and 13 kDa in size. Association was found between 17 kDa salivary protein and AC in men. Conclusions: whole salivary proteins are very similar in the three groups, except for the 17 kDa salivary protein, which might be risk marker for dental caries.