Dental Treatment and Salivary Antimicrobial Peptide LL-37 in Children with Caries: A Pilot Study

Aims: To investigate the relationship between caries experience and the salivary concentration of LL-37 in children and to determine its role as a diagnostic marker in predicting caries experience in children. Methods: At baseline, unstimulated whole saliva was collected from 21 systemically healthy children aged 6-10 years old before dental extraction under general anaesthesia (GA). Eleven children were successfully followed one month after dental treatment and a second saliva sample was obtained from them during the review appointment. Their caries status was recorded before dental treatment. The pre-and post-treatment salivary concentration of LL-37 was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: LL-37 was detected in all saliva samples and its concentration varied widely among the participants. Following extraction of carious teeth, the salivary concentration of LL-37 significantly reduced with a -90.94 ng/ml mean value of concentration change. No correlations between pre-treatment salivary concentration of LL-37 with the numbers of decayed teeth (DT/dt) or surfaces (DS/ds) were observed. No statistically significant differences were found among participants with different DT/dt levels. Conclusion: The reduced expression of the salivary concentration of LL-37 following dental extraction in children suggests that the salivary antimicrobial peptide (AMP) LL-37 plays an important role in innate immunity against oral infection and inflammation.