Microbial Communities and Functional Genes in Periodontitis and Healthy Controls

Zhonghui Ma; Ze Jiang; Haoxin Dong; Wenhua Xu; Su Yan; Jingfeng Chen; Ang Li; Xi Wang

doi:10.1016/j.identj.2024.01.012

Microbial Communities and Functional Genes in Periodontitis and Healthy Controls

Int Dent J. 2024 Mar 5:S0020-6539(24)00037-6. doi: 10.1016/j.identj.2024.01.012. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Zhonghui Ma¹, Ze Jiang², Haoxin Dong³, Wenhua Xu⁴, Su Yan⁵, Jingfeng Chen⁵, Ang Li⁶, Xi Wang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Stomatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China; Gene Hospital of Henan Province, Precision Medicine Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
² Department of Stomatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
³ Department of Stomatology, Children's Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Stomatology, Zhengzhou People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China.
⁵ Health Management Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
⁶ Gene Hospital of Henan Province, Precision Medicine Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China. Electronic address: lia@zju.edu.cn.
⁷ Department of Stomatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China. Electronic address: fccwangx1@zzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38448300
DOI: 10.1016/j.identj.2024.01.012

Abstract

Background: Periodontitis is a chronic progressive disease and the leading cause of tooth loss in adults. Recent studies have shown the impact of oral microbial communities on systemic health and diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, hypertension, and Alzheimer's disease. In previous case control studies investigatin the relationship between periodontal disease and the oral microbiota, little attention has been paid to the intersections of these domains.

Methods: Here, we used high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing to analyse the differences in the microbial composition in saliva between a group of patients with chronic periodontitis (C; n = 51) and a healthy control group (H; n = 61) and predicted the functional gene composition by Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States.

Results: We found significant alterations in oral microbial diversity between C and H (P = 0.002). Sixteen genera were significantly different between C and H, and 15 of them were enriched in C linear discriminant analysis (LDA > 2). Fifty functional genes were significantly different between C and H, and 34 of them were enriched in C (P < .025).

Conclusions: Periodontitis is associated with significant changes in the oral microbial community.

Keywords: 16S rRNA; Case-control study; PICRUSt; Periodontitis; Saliva microbiome.