Short communicationHeritability estimates for dental caries and sucrose sweetness preference
Introduction
Early childhood caries is a complex multifactorial disease. A variety of etiologic factors, including microbial, genetic, immunological, behavioural and environmental, may interact to contribute to dental caries development.1, 2 Evidence from animal models indicates that elements of the host genome are important risk factors in the etiology of dental caries.3 Support for a genetic contribution to caries comes primarily from studies of families and twins.4 We have recently demonstrated that a significant proportion of the clinical caries variance in early childhood caries is heritable, indicating elements of the host genome are etiologically important.5
Dietary substrates, particularly sucrose are believed to be important in the pathogenesis of caries.2 The cariogenic flora can sequester sucrose moieties in the oral environment in a very unique manner allowing for the production of acid that can demineralise the tooth structure.2 It is well established that the frequency of sucrose intake, particularly between meals, is associated with increased levels of caries occurrence.6 Several factors may influence sucrose intake, including taste preference. Evidence in animals and humans indicate that taste preference is significantly modulated by host genetics.7 Studies of the heritability of sucrose sweetness taste preference have shown conflicting results and are scarce.8, 9, 10
The aim of this investigation was to dissect the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to variation in dental caries traits and sucrose sweetness preference by employing the twin study model. In addition, we modelled the relative contribution of sucrose sweetness preference on the heritability of dental caries traits.
Section snippets
Demographic characteristics of the study population
Consent was obtained following the University of Pittsburgh and Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros Institutional Review Boards’ guidelines in compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki statement. Twins were ascertained from a government registry and they were from low socio-economic families who resided in the city of Montes Claros, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. City water supplies have fluoride levels of <0.2 ppm, and parents reported 91% of the children having never visited a dentist.
Results and discussion
Fig. 1 shows the distribution of the SSPS for all children. Although variation in sucrose sweetness preference tended to exhibit a unimodal distribution, some variation was apparent. Assessment of individual sucrose/grape solutions for sucrose sweetness preference also showed a unimodal distribution (data not shown). Other studies have demonstrated that variation to sucrose sweetness preference in children 4–6-years-old is apparent when assays similar to ours were submitted to these children.17
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by NIH/NIDCR grants DE15351 and DE14528.
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Cited by (61)
Precision Dentistry in Early Childhood: The Central Role of Genomics
2017, Dental Clinics of North AmericaCitation Excerpt :The notion of a genetic basis of oral traits and dental diseases, including dental caries, is not new. Early evidence from twin studies14,15 supports the heritability of dental caries, whereas more recent estimates of heritable variance in childhood caries explained by genetics are in the range of 40% to 70%16–19; and this susceptibility seems independent of sweetness preference heritability.20 Despite an understanding of the importance of genomics for ECC, knowledge of specific ECC risk-conferring polymorphisms is limited.
Clinical Genetics for the Dental Practitioner
2016, McDonald and Avery's Dentistry for the Child and Adolescent: Tenth EditionA systematic review of caries risk in children <6 years of age
2023, International Journal of Paediatric DentistryTaste perception in children with different caries activity
2022, European Archives of Paediatric DentistryRelationship between the TAS2R38 and TAS1R2 polymorphisms and the dental status in obese children
2022, Dental and Medical Problems
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