{"doi":"10.3390/dj10120223","title":"Streptococcus mutans Proteases Degrade Dentinal Collagen","abstract":"Here, we explored the role of S. mutans’s whole cell and discrete fractions in the degradation of type I collagen and dentinal collagen. Type I collagen gels and human demineralized dentin slabs (DS) were incubated in media alone or with one of the following: overnight (O/N) or newly inoculated (NEW) cultures of S. mutans UA159; intracellular proteins, supernatant or bacterial membranes of O/N cultures. Media from all groups were analyzed for protease-mediated release of the collagen-specific imino acid hydroxyproline. Images of type I collagen and DS were analyzed, respectively. Type I collagen degradation was highest for the supernatant (p < 0.05) fractions, followed by intracellular components and O/N cultures. Collagen degradation for DS samples was highest for O/N samples, followed by supernatant, and intracellular components (p < 0.05). There was lower detectable degradation for both type I collagen and DS from NEW culture samples (p < 0.05), and there was no type I collagen or DS degradation detected for bacterial membrane samples. Structural changes to type I collagen gel and dentinal collagen were observed, respectively, following incubation with S. mutans cultures (O/N and NEW), intracellular components, and supernatant. This study demonstrates that intracellular and extracellular proteolytic activities from S. mutans enable this cariogenic bacterium to degrade type I and dentinal collagen in a growth-phase dependent manner, potentially contributing to the progression of dental caries.","journal":"Dentistry Journal","year":2022,"id":258126,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":18,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9574,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":909178,"name":"Cameron A. Stewart","orcid":"0000-0002-1540-0846","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":605524,"name":"Christopher A. McCulloch","orcid":"0000-0002-3535-8593","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":909179,"name":"J. Paul Santerre","orcid":"0000-0003-3373-6463","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":909180,"name":"Dennis G. Cvitkovitch","orcid":"0000-0003-2490-6862","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":385882,"name":"Yoav Finer","orcid":"0000-0002-1707-2698","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":909177,"name":"Bo Huang","orcid":"0009-0006-7698-2153","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":54,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:25:38.634785Z","pmid":"36547039","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}