Microbial signature profiles of periodontally healthy and diseased patients

Abstract

Aim: To determine microbial profiles that discriminate periodontal health from different forms of periodontal diseases.

Methods: Subgingival biofilm was obtained from patients with periodontal health (27), gingivitis (11), chronic periodontitis (35) and aggressive periodontitis (24), and analysed for the presence of >250 species/phylotypes using HOMIM. Microbial differences among groups were examined by Mann-Whitney U-test. Regression analyses were performed to determine microbial risk indicators of disease.

Results: Putative and potential new periodontal pathogens were more prevalent in subjects with periodontal diseases than periodontal health. Detection of Porphyromonas endodontalis/Porphyromonas spp. (OR 9.5 [1.2-73.1]) and Tannerella forsythia (OR 38.2 [3.2-450.6]), and absence of Neisseria polysaccharea (OR 0.004 [0-0.15]) and Prevotella denticola (OR 0.014 [0-0.49], p < 0.05) were risk indicators of periodontal disease. Presence of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (OR 29.4 [3.4-176.5]), Cardiobacterium hominis (OR 14.9 [2.3-98.7]), Peptostreptococcaceae sp. (OR 35.9 [2.7-483.9]), P. alactolyticus (OR 31.3 [2.1-477.2]), and absence of Fretibacterium spp. (OR 0.024 [0.002-0.357]), Fusobacterium naviforme/Fusobacterium nucleatum ss vincentii (OR 0.015 [0.001-0.223]), Granulicatella adiacens/Granulicatella elegans (OR 0.013 [0.001-0.233], p < 0.05) were associated with aggressive periodontitis.

Conclusion: There were specific microbial signatures of the subgingival biofilm that were able to distinguish between microbiomes of periodontal health and diseases. Such profiles may be used to establish risk of disease.

Keywords: aggressive periodontitis; biofilm; chronic periodontitis; gingivitis; microarray analysis; microbiota.

Figure 1

Microbial profiles of subgingival plaque samples from individual patients (columns) of the four clinical groups: health (green boxes), gingivitis (pink boxes), chronic (red boxes) and aggressive periodontitis (yellow boxes). Patients were grouped by cluster analysis based on the frequency of scores of 380 probes (lanes) grouped by genera or species. The different intensities of green correspond to signal intensities of the arrays (scores 0 to 5). The vertical dashed lane separates the two major clinical groups (periodontal health, on the left; and periodontal disease, on the right).

Figure 2

Correspondence analysis 3D plot for clustering individuals with different clinical status based on their microbial profiles (frequency of species/phylotypes) determined using HOMIM. Green circles: periodontally healthy individuals. Pink circles: individuals with gingivitis. Red circles: chronic periodontitis individuals. Yellow circles: aggressive periodontitis individuals.

Figure 3

Stacked bar chart of the frequency of scores (0 a 5) of the species/phylotypes detected by HOMIM in subgingival plaque samples of patients with periodontal health (n=27) and periodontal diseases (gingivitis, 11, chronic, 35, and aggressive periodontitis, 24). These microorganisms represent the ones that differed significantly in prevalence between groups, after adjusting for multiple comparisons (p<0.00013, Mann-Whitney test). The green shades of the bars correspond to the scores (0 to 5) of fluorescence intensities obtained in the arrays.

Figure 4

Stacked bar chart of the frequency of the species/phylotypes detected by HOMIM in subgingival plaque samples obtained from periodontally healthy sites of patients with periodontal health (n=27) and periodontitis (n=59). These microorganisms represent the ones that differed significantly in prevalence between groups, after adjusting for multiple comparisons (p<0.00013, Chi-square test).