Mature Biofilm Degradation by Potential Probiotics: Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans versus Lactobacillus spp.

The biofilm degradation of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is essential as a complete periodontal disease therapy, and here we show the effects of potential probiotic bacteria such as Lactobacillus spp. for the biofilm of several serotypes of A. actinomycetemcomitans strains. Eight of the 13 species showed the competent biofilm degradation of ≥ 90% reduction in biofilm values in A. actinomycetemcomitans Y4 (serotype b) as well as four of the seven species for the biofilm of A. actinomycetemcomitans OMZ 534 (serotype e). In contrast, the probiotic bacteria did not have a big impact for the degradation of A. actinomycetemcomitans SUNY 75 (serotype a) biofilm. The dispersed A. actinomycetemcomitans Y4 cells through the biofilm detachment were still viable and plausible factors for the biofilm degradation were not due to the lactic acid and low pH conditions. The three enzymes, protease, lipase, and amylase may be responsible for the biofilm degradation; in particular, lipase was the most effective enzyme for the biofilm degradation of A. actinomycetemcomitans Y4 along with the protease activity which should be also important for the other serotypes. Remarkable lipase enzyme activities were detected from some of the potential probiotics and a supporting result using a lipase inhibitor presented corroborating evidence that lipase activity is one of the contributing factors for biofilm degradation outside of the protease which is also another possible factor for the biofilm of the other serotype of A. actinomycetemcomitans strains. On the other hand, the biofilm of A. actinomycetemcomitans SUNY 75 (serotype a) was not powerfully degraded by the lipase enzyme because the lipase inhibitor was slightly functional for only two of potential probiotics.