Cariogenicity of Glucose, Sucrose and Amylopectin in Rats and Hamsters Infected and Noninfected with Streptococcus mutans

Abstract

Groups of Wistar rats and albino hamsters were given six different experimental diets containing 56% of either glucose, sucrose, amylopectin or combinations of glucose and amylopectin. Half of the animals were infected with a mixture of four strains of Streptococcus mutans. The rats were kept in an automatic feeding machine whereas the hamsters were caged in ordinary macrolon cages. Caries was scored after 80 days. Animals infected with S. mutans developed more caries in all dietary groups than noninfected. All types of caries, buccolingual, sulcal and proximal, were increased. Especially in the sucrose group, both in rats and hamsters, a pronounced occurrence of smooth surface caries was found, infected animals having 4–15 times as many smooth surface caries lesions as noninfected ones. Thus, the combination S. mutans-sucrose showed an outstanding picture of rampant caries in comparison to all other groups. Amylopectin could not substitute for extracellular glucan formation by S. mutans either alone or in combination with glucose.