Metabolomics of oral plaque biofilm using CE-TOFMS

The various metabolites produced by oral plaque biofilm directly relate to oral diseases such as dental caries and periodontitis. However, the metabolic properties in oral plaque biofilm have not been clarified because the comprehensive identification and quantification of metabolites, metabolomics in short, was technically difficult. Recently, CE-TOFMS, a combination of capillary electrophoresis and time-of-flight mass spectrometry, has been developed to perform metabolomics, and therefore, we applied CE-TOFMS to metabolomics of oral plaque biofilm. Consequently, it was suggested that it is possible to detect and quantify metabolites related to the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway, the pentose-phosphate pathway and the citricacid cycle, the metabolites related to amino acid metabolisms and amino acids in a small amount of oral plaque biofilm, and that these metabolic pathways function in oral plaque biofilm. The metabolomics research using CE-TOFMS may contribute to the clarification of the etiology of oral plaque biofilm-related diseases.