Objective: To study the composition of fatty acids in human dental plaque, a Gas Chromatography (GC) and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) method was developed.
Methods: The C17:0 was internal standard and the C16:0 was test standard. Samples of plaque were methanolysis to be fatty acids methyl ester before detection. GC with OV-1 separated the sample for a quantitative analysis. The column size was 25 m x 25 mm. The temperature program was from 80 degrees C to 260 degrees C with 12 degrees C/min. The sample separation was carried out at fused silica capillary column with OV-1 for qualitative analysis by GC/MS. The column size was 23 m x 0.23 mm. The temperature program was from 40 degrees C to 240 degrees C at 6 degrees C/min.
Results: The linear regression equation was y = 0.0138X-0.1182, r = 0.9945, recovery was 90.18%-103.6%, CV intro-day was 2.60, 1.61, 2.20; CV inter-day was; 2.71, 1.69, 1.61. The lowest limit of detection was 0.6 ug. The GC and GC/MS diagram showed that internal standard and fatty acids of plaque have good separation.
Conclusion: The method is simple, rapid accurate, and is useful to carry out qualitative and quantitative analyses of fatty acids in dental plaque.