1887

Abstract

Transmission of , a major dental caries pathogen, occurs mainly during the first 2.5 years of age. Children appear to acquire mostly from their mothers, but few studies have investigated non-familial sources of transmission. This study prospectively analysed initial oral colonization in 119 children from nursery schools during a 1.5-year period and tracked the transmission from child to child, day-care caregiver to child and mother to child. Children were examined at baseline, when they were 5–13 months of age, and at 6-month intervals for determination of oral levels of and development of caries lesions. Levels of were also determined in caregivers and mothers. A total of 1392 isolates (obtained from children, caregivers and mothers) were genotyped by arbitrarily primed PCR and chromosomal RFLP. Overall, 40.3 % of children were detectably colonized during the study, and levels of were significantly associated with the development of caries lesions. Identical genotypes were found in four nursery cohorts. No familial relationship existed in three of these cohorts, indicating horizontal transmission. Despite high oral levels of identified in most of the caregivers, none of their genotypes matched those identified in the respective children. Only 50 % of children with high levels of carried genotypes identified in their mothers. The results support previous evidence indicating that non-familial sources of transmission exist, and indicate that this bacterium may be transmitted horizontally between children during the initial phases of colonization in nursery environments.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.005777-0
2009-04-01
2024-03-29
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jmm/58/4/476.html?itemId=/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.005777-0&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Berkowitz R. J., Jordan H. V. 1975; Similarity of bacteriocins of Streptococcus mutans from mother and infant. Arch Oral Biol 20:725–730 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Caufield P. W., Cutter G. R., Dasanayake A. P. 1993; Initial acquisition of mutans streptococci by infants: evidence for a discrete window of infectivity. J Dent Res 72:37–45 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Caufield P. W., Dasanayake A. P., Li Y., Pan Y., Hsu J., Hardin J. M. 2000; Natural history of Streptococcus sanguinis in the oral cavity of infants: evidence for a discrete window of infectivity. Infect Immun 68:4018–4023 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Emanuelsson I. R., Li Y., Bratthall D. 1998; Genotyping shows different strains of mutans streptococci between father and child and within parental pairs in Swedish families. Oral Microbiol Immunol 13:271–277 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Emilson C. G., Lindquist B., Wennerholm K. 1987; Recolonization of human tooth surfaces by Streptococcus mutans after suppression by chlorhexidine treatment. J Dent Res 66:1503–1508 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Gripp V. C., Schlagenhauf U. 2002; Prevention of early mutans streptococci transmission in infants by professional tooth cleaning and chlorhexidine varnish treatment of the mother. Caries Res 36:366–372 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Klein M. I., Florio F. M., Pereira A. C., Höfling J. F., Goncalves R. B. 2004; Longitudinal study of transmission, diversity, and stability of Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus genotypes in Brazilian nursery children. J Clin Microbiol 42:4620–4626 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Köhler B., Bratthall D., Krasse B. 1983; Preventive measures in mothers influence the establishment of the bacterium Streptococcus mutans in their infants. Arch Oral Biol 28:225–231 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Köhler B., Andreen I., Jonsson B. 1988; The earlier the colonization by mutans streptococci, the higher the caries prevalence at 4 years of age. Oral Microbiol Immunol 3:14–17 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Kozai K., Nakayama R., Tedjosasongko U., Kuwahara S., Suzuki J., Okada M., Nagasaka N. 1999; Intrafamilial distribution of mutans streptococci in Japanese families and possibility of father-to-child transmission. Microbiol Immunol 43:99–106 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Li Y., Caufield P. W. 1995; The fidelity of initial acquisition of mutans streptococci by infants from their mothers. J Dent Res 74:681–685 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Li Y., Caufield P. W. 1998; Arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction fingerprinting for the genotypic identification of mutans streptococci from humans. Oral Microbiol Immunol 13:17–22 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Li Y., Wang W., Caufield P. W. 2000; The fidelity of mutans streptococci transmission and caries status correlate with breast-feeding experience among Chinese families. Caries Res 34:123–132 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Mattos-Graner R. O., Zelante F., Line R. C., Mayer M. P. 1998; Association between caries prevalence and clinical, microbiological and dietary variables in 1.0 to 2.5-year-old Brazilian children. Caries Res 32:319–323 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Mattos-Graner R. O., Smith D. J., King W. F., Mayer M. P. 2000; Water-insoluble glucan synthesis by mutans streptococcal strains correlates with caries incidence in 12- to 30-month-old children. J Dent Res 79:1371–1377 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Mattos-Graner R. O., Correa M. S., Latorre M. R., Peres R. C., Mayer M. P. 2001a; Mutans streptococci oral colonization in 12–30-month-old Brazilian children over a one-year follow-up period. J Public Health Dent 61:161–167 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Mattos-Graner R. O., Li Y., Caufield P. W., Duncan M., Smith D. J. 2001b; Genotypic diversity of mutans streptococci in Brazilian nursery children suggests horizontal transmission. J Clin Microbiol 39:2313–2316 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Nogueira R. D., Alves A. C., Napimoga M. H., Smith D. J., Mattos-Graner R. O. 2005; Characterization of salivary immunoglobulin A responses in children heavily exposed to the oral bacterium Streptococcus mutans : influence of specific antigen recognition in infection. Infect Immun 73:5675–5684 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Nogueira R. D., Alves A. C., King W. F., Goncalves R. B., Hofling J. F., Smith D. J., Mattos-Graner R. O. 2007; Age-specific salivary immunoglobulin A response to Streptococcus mutans GbpB. Clin Vaccine Immunol 14:804–807 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Peerbooms P. G., Engelen M. N., Stokman D. A., van Benthem B. H., van Weert M. L., Bruisten S. M., van Belkum A., Coutinho R. A. 2002; Nasopharyngeal carriage of potential bacterial pathogens related to day care attendance, with special reference to the molecular epidemiology of Haemophilus influenzae . J Clin Microbiol 40:2832–2836 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Pons J. L., Mandement M. N., Martin E., Lemort C., Nouvellon M., Mallet E., Lemeland J. F. 1996; Clonal and temporal patterns of nasopharyngeal penicillin-susceptible and penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae strains in children attending a day care center. J Clin Microbiol 34:3218–3222
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Redmo Emanuelsson I. M., Thornqvist E. 2001; Distribution of mutans streptococci in families: a longitudinal study. Acta Odontol Scand 59:93–98 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Redmo Emanuelsson I. M., Wang X. M. 1998; Demonstration of identical strains of mutans streptococci within Chinese families by genotyping. Eur J Oral Sci 106:788–794 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Rogers A. H. 1977; Evidence for the transmissibility of human dental caries. Aust Dent J 22:53–56 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Saarela M., Troil-Linden B., Torkko H., Stucki A. M., Alaluusua S., Jousimies-Somer H., Asikainen S. 1993; Transmission of oral bacterial species between spouses. Oral Microbiol Immunol 8:349–354 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Sá-Leão R., Nunes S., Brito-Avo A., Alves C. R., Carrico J. A., Saldanha J., Almeida J. S., Santos-Sanches I., de Lencastre H. 2008; High rates of transmission of and colonization by Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae within a day care center revealed in a longitudinal study. J Clin Microbiol 46:225–234 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Tedjosasongko U., Kozai K. 2002; Initial acquisition and transmission of mutans streptococci in children at day nursery. ASDC J Dent Child 69:284–285
    [Google Scholar]
  28. van Houte J., Gibbs G., Butera C. 1982; Oral flora of children with “nursing bottle caries”. J Dent Res 61:382–385 [CrossRef]
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Yano H., Suetake M., Kuga A., Irinoda K., Okamoto R., Kobayashi T., Inoue M. 2000; Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis of nasopharyngeal flora in children attending a day care center. J Clin Microbiol 38:625–629
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.005777-0
Loading
/content/journal/jmm/10.1099/jmm.0.005777-0
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error