Effect of molecular mass and degree of deacetylation of chitosan on adsorption of Streptococcus sobrinus 6715 to saliva treated hydroxyapatite.

We evaluated the influence of molecular mass and degree of deacetylation of chitosan on the adsorption of Streptococcus sobrinus 6715 to saliva-treated hydroxyapatite (S-HA) by measuring the optical density of the bacterial cell suspensions released from saliva-treated hydroxyapatite. Twenty-five chitosan samples with different molecular masses (0.8-6 kDa) and degrees of deacetylation (10-95%) were prepared for the study. We found that the inhibition of adsorption of S. sobrinus 6715 to S-HA correlated positively with the molecular mass of chitosan (R = 0.876) and that the optimal degree of deacetylation was 50-60% for maximum inhibition of bacterial binding to S-HA. We also examined the effect of chitosan on zeta potentials of the oral bacteria and their surface hydrophobicities. It was observed that chitosan reduced the magnitude of the zeta potential and surface hydrophobicities of the oral bacteria. Thus, the results demonstrated that chitosan with a molecular mass of 5-6 kDa and a degree of deacetylation of 50-60% might have the potential to act as an effective anti-plaque agent because of its polycationic properties.