Adherence and Streptococcus mutans infections: in vitro study with saliva from noninfected and infected preschool children.

An in vitro adherence experiment was designed to mimic the transmission of Streptococcus mutans from mother to child to test the hypothesis that differences in initial adherence reflect differences in susceptibility to infection. The data show that the pretreatment of S. mutans cells with the saliva of the mother in a mother-child pair and the pretreatment of spheroidal hydroxyapatite with that of the child may result in combinations which counteract or foster the initial adherence to a varying extent. The findings indicate that such combinations may determine the risk of S. mutants infection.