Relative effects of sucrolytic enzymes in human dental plaque

The relative effects in human dental plaque material from the three main extracellular sucrolytic enzymes from bacterial origin, invertase, dextransucrase and levansucrase, have been investigated by means of quantitative determination of products with sucrose as the substrate. Twenty young men having carious lesions and harboring plaque material on the tooth surfaces, were selected. One gram (wet weight) of plaque material was obtained and divided in five samples, 0.2 g each, for different investigations and controls. Twice as much fructan as glucan was found in plaque. Invertase activity was found to dominate sucrolysis within plaque with 99.67% of the total activity.