Virulence-related physiological changes and antigenic variation in populations of Streptococcus mutans colonizing gnotobiotic rats.

The purpose of this study was to determine if populations of Streptococcus mutans which were undergoing antigenic variation while colonizing gnotobiotic rats concomitantly became altered in physiological characteristics which affected their virulence. S. mutans strain JBP (serotype c), which was freshly isolated from a carious lesion in a 6-year old child, was used to inoculate gnotobiotic rats; uninfected animals served as controls. Substrains were isolated from animals 1, 2, 3, 4, and 12 weeks after infection; samples of pilocarpine-stimulated saliva were also obtained from representative animals for antibody analyses. Isolates derived from stock cultures of strain JBP proved to be homogeneous with respect to all of the physiological characteristics monitored. However, substrains isolated from the animals within 4 weeks after infection were altered with respect to their ability to agglutinate in the presence of sucrose, their ability to form adherent growth in sucrose broth, and the terminal pH attained in glucose broth. Some isolates obtained 12 weeks after infection no longer synthesized detectable levels of c antigen or intracellular glycogen, and they formed atypical smooth colonies on mitis salivarius agar. With an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, low levels of immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies reactive with whole JBP cells were detected in saliva samples of uninfected control animals at each sampling period; these evidently were induced to antigens contained in the diet of the animals. Significantly higher levels of IgA antibodies were present in saliva samples from animals infected with strain JBP for 3 weeks or longer. Thus, the emergence of antigenic and physiological variants of S. mutans in the animals was paralleled by increased levels of salivary IgA antibodies. The reactivity of salivary IgG with JBP cells was low, and it fluctuated in both groups of animals. No antibodies of the IgM class were detected. When tested in gnotobiotic rats, several variants, including strains which no longer formed typical rough colonies or adherent growth in sucrose broth, proved much less virulent than parental strain JBP in inducing carious lesions. Prior oral immunization, which resulted in higher levels of salivary and serum IgA antibodies reactive with strain JBP, was found to accelerate the emergence of smooth-colony variants in the animals; it was also associated with decreased streptococcal population levels on the teeth and in feces of the rats. It is suggested that part of the mechanism by which artificial immunization leads to a reduction in dental caries development in experimental animals is due to the earlier selection of less virulent streptococcal populations.