Determination of the composition of the acquired pellicle formed in situ on human enamel and dentin: proteomic study

Author(s)

Melina Rodrigues Bellini

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Bauru.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru (FOB/SDB)
• Defense date: 2013-10-18

Examining board members

Marilia Afonso Rabelo Buzalaf; William Custodio; Walter Luiz Siqueira Junior

• Advisor: Marilia Afonso Rabelo Buzalaf

Abstract

The acquired pellicle (AP) is a film that results from selective adsorption of proteins, glicoproteins and lipids on the tooth surface. The presence of proteins in the AP forms a protective interface on the tooth surface that participates in all the surface events occurring in the oral cavity, such as de- and remineralization, lubrification of the tooth surfaces and bacterial adherence. With the advent of Proteomics, considerable increase in the knowledge of the protein profile of the AP formed on tooth enamel, under different circunstances, has been observed. However, so far the proteomic profile of the AP formed on dentin has not been described. This is the first study to compare the proteomic profile of APs formed in situ for 10 minutes and 2 hours, on enamel and dentin, using quantitative label-free proteomics. The experiments were conducted for 3 consecutive days. Each day, 9 volunteers were submitted to dental prophylaxis and in sequence wore a vestibular device containing 6 human enamel and 6 human dentin blocks for 10 minutes or 2 hours. After these periods, the PA formed was collected with an electrode filter paper soaked in 3% citric acid. The papers from the 9 volunteers, for each substrate and time of pellicle formation were pooled and used for analysis. After protein extraction and digestion, peptides were separated by nano-HPLC (High-performance liquid chromatography) coupled to a mass spectrometer (nLC-ESI- MS/MS). The obtained MS/MS spectra were searched against human protein databases (UniProt and TrEMBL) using SEQUEST algorithm in Proteome Discoverer 1.3 software. For the AP formed on enamel, 160 and 64 proteins were identified for the times of pellicle formation of 10 minutes and 2 hours, respectively. The respective numbers of identified proteins for dentin were 86 and 52, respectively. For the times of 10 minutes and 2 hours, respectively, 25 and 11 proteins were common to both substrates. They were submitted to label-free quantification, which revealed that most of the proteins with differential expression were overexpressed in the dentin. For APs formed for 10 minutes, 135 and 61 proteins were identified exclusively for enamel or dentin, respectively. The corresponding number for the 2-hour APs was 53 and 41 proteins, respectively. Among the proteins identified exclusively in dentin, many proteins related with calcium/calmodulin complex, as well as proteins associated with tumorigenesis and protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation were found. In addition, many of the identified proteins, both for enamel and dentin, remain uncharacterized and, therefore have no described function in the AP. In the future, their characterization and functional studies might open new avenues for the understanding of the importance of the AP for the protection of the dental structure, as well as for the use of the AP as a site for biomarkers of oral and systemic diseases. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/13865-1 - Determination of the composition of the acquired pellicle formed on enamel and dentin using proteomic techniques
• Grantee: Melina Rodrigues Bellini
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master