Biomarkers for Lifetime Caries-Free Status

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to address the hypothesis that extreme outcomes of dental caries, such as edentulism or prematurely losing permanent teeth are associated with genetic variation in enamel-formation genes. After scanning 6206 individuals, samples of 330 were selected for this study. Tested phenotypes included patients who were edentulous by age 30, patients with missing first molars by age 30, patients with missing second molars by age 30, and caries-free patients. Fourteen single nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped by TaqMan chemistry. The analyses of each phenotype were performed using the software PLINK with an alpha of 0.05. Nominal associations were found between rs12640848 in enamelin (p = 0.05), rs1784418 in matrix metallopeptidase 20 (p = 0.02), and rs5997096 in the tuftelin interacting protein 11 and being caries-free at the age of 60. When combining patients that were missing both first mandibular molars and missing both second mandibular molars, no associations were found. Matrix metallopeptidase 20, and tuftelin interacting protein 11 also showed trends for association with being caries-free. Genetic variation in TFIP11, MMP20, and ENAM may have a protective effect increasing the chances of individuals preserving their teeth caries-free over a lifetime.

Polymorphisms in genes expressed during amelogenesis and their association with dental caries: a case–control study

“…This is not in accordance with our results as this SNP has not been associated with dental caries in the Czech population in either of the groups (i.e., neither in the primary nor permanent dentition), although the MAFs are similar in the Czech and Turkish populations. In line with previous studies [28,29], the other common SNP in this gene, ALOX15 (rs2619112), was not associated with an increased risk of dental caries development in Czech children. Our study is the first one of variability in ALOX15 about dental caries in the European population.…”

“…Our results indicate that the A allele of this SNP is a risk factor for dental caries in the permanent dentition in the Czech population; moreover, the AA genotype was also associated with the severity of dental caries in the permanent dentition. Nevertheless, other studies did not show any association of this SNP with dental caries of permanent dentition [29,57] or in mixed dentition [37]. The reasons for this difference may lie in the populations studied and/or in the design of the research.…”

“…Our study, as well as others [28,37,38,63], found no association with dental caries. However, Kelly et al [29] associated this SNP with dental caries of permanent dentition in their meta-analysis. Their work suggested the CT and CC genotypes be protective against tooth decay.…”

“…The reasons for this difference may lie in the populations studied and/or in the design of the research. For example, Li et al [37] considered patients with low caries experience as controls; other studied populations differed, for example, in the mean age of patients [29] or in ethnicity (9.5% of the population in Cavallari et al's paper [57] were Black).…”

DNA methylation in childhood dental caries and hypomineralization

“…There is considerable interest in the potential role of epigenetic modulation of gene expression in shaping individual susceptibility to these diseases [7]. The myriad of different cellular morphologies and functions within an individual are specified by epigenetic variation established during cellular differentiation and development [8].…”