Exploring the salivary microbiome of children stratified by the oral hygiene index

PLoS One. 2017 Sep 21;12(9):e0185274. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0185274. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Poor oral hygiene often leads to chronic diseases such as periodontitis and dental caries resulting in substantial economic costs and diminished quality of life in not only adults but also in children. In this study, the salivary microbiome was characterized in a group of children stratified by the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S). Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing based on the 16S rRNA was utilized to analyze 90 salivary samples (24 Good, 31 Moderate and 35 Poor oral hygiene) from a cohort of Thai children. A total of 38,521 OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units) with a 97% similarity were characterized in all of the salivary samples. Twenty taxonomic groups (Seventeen genera, two families and one class; Streptococcus, Veillonella, Gemellaceae, Prevotella, Rothia, Porphyromonas, Granulicatella, Actinomyces, TM-7-3, Leptotrichia, Haemophilus, Selenomonas, Neisseria, Megasphaera, Capnocytophaga, Oribacterium, Abiotrophia, Lachnospiraceae, Peptostreptococcus, and Atopobium) were found in all subjects and constituted 94.5-96.5% of the microbiome. Of these twenty genera, the proportion of Streptococcus decreased while Veillonella increased with poor oral hygiene status (P < 0.05). Furthermore, an unassigned species of Veillonella, Veillonella dispar and Veillonella parvula tended to be elevated in the Poor oral hygiene group. This is the first study demonstrating an important association between increase of Veillonella and poor oral hygiene status in children. However, further studies are required to identify the majority of Veillonella at species level in salivary microbiome of the Poor oral hygiene group.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Child
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Microbiota* / genetics
  • Oral Hygiene Index*
  • RNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / genetics
  • Saliva / microbiology*

Substances

  • RNA, Bacterial
  • RNA, Ribosomal, 16S

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (15J30007 to IM, 26462793 to FN; https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-grantsinaid/), Research Institute of Personalized Health Sciences, Health Sciences University of Hokkaido (2014-200-3, 2016-200-4 to FN; http://www.hoku-iryo-u.ac.jp/~kotaisa/index.html), The Institute for Fermentation, Osaka (Research grant 2016 and 2017 to IM; http://www.ifo.or.jp/research/re_02.html), and the Mahidol University Faculty of Dentistry (0517.033/62 to BT; www.dt.mahidol.ac.th/eng/). The funders had no role in this study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.