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. 2015 Dec 7;10(12):e0143603.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143603. eCollection 2015.

Oral Microbiota and Risk for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in a High-Risk Area of China

Xingdong Chen  1   2   3 , Björn Winckler  1 , Ming Lu  3   4 , Hongwei Cheng  5 , Ziyu Yuan  2   3 , Yajun Yang  2   3 , Li Jin  2   3 , Weimin Ye  1   3
Affiliations

Oral Microbiota and Risk for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in a High-Risk Area of China

Xingdong Chen et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Poor oral health has been linked with an increased risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We investigated whether alteration of oral microbiota is associated with ESCC risk. Fasting saliva samples were collected from 87 incident and histopathologicallly diagnosed ESCC cases, 63 subjects with dysplasia and 85 healthy controls. All subjects were also interviewed with a questionnaire. V3-V4 region of 16S rRNA was amplified and sequenced by 454-pyrosequencing platform. Carriage of each genus was compared by means of multivariate-adjusted odds ratios derived from logistic regression model. Relative abundance was compared using Metastats method. Beta diversity was estimated using Unifrac and weighted Unifrac distances. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) was applied to ordinate dissimilarity matrices. Multinomial logistic regression was used to compare the coordinates between different groups. ESCC subjects had an overall decreased microbial diversity compared to control and dysplasia subjects (P<0.001). Decreased carriage of genera Lautropia, Bulleidia, Catonella, Corynebacterium, Moryella, Peptococcus and Cardiobacterium were found in ESCC subjects compared to non-ESCC subjects. Multinomial logistic regression analyses on PCoA coordinates also revealed that ESCC subjects had significantly different levels for several coordinates compared to non-ESCC subjects. In conclusion, we observed a correlation between altered salivary bacterial microbiota and ESCC risk. The results of our study on the saliva microbiome are of particular interest as it reflects the shift in microbial communities. Further studies are warranted to verify this finding, and if being verified, to explore the underlying mechanisms.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flowchart of sample selection.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Abundances of microbiota in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), dysplasia control and healthy control (Control) groups at phylum level.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Distribution of samples depicted by the two most significant coordinates for Unifrac (A) and weighted Unifrac distances (B).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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