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. 2017 Jan 23;9(1):1270614.
doi: 10.1080/20002297.2016.1270614. eCollection 2017.

Salivary microbiota in individuals with different levels of caries experience

Daniel Belstrøm  1 , Palle Holmstrup  1 , Nils-Erik Fiehn  2 , Nikolai Kirkby  3 , Alexis Kokaras  4 , Bruce J Paster  5 , Allan Bardow  6
Affiliations

Salivary microbiota in individuals with different levels of caries experience

Daniel Belstrøm et al. J Oral Microbiol. .

Abstract

This study compared salivary bacterial profiles in two groups having a 10-fold difference in levels of caries experience, as it was hypothesized that the composition of the salivary microbiota might associate with the levels of caries experience. Bacterial profiles in stimulated saliva samples from 85 individuals with low levels of caries experience (healthy group) and 79 individuals with high levels of caries experience (caries group) were analyzed by means of the Human Oral Microbiome Identification Next Generation Sequencing (HOMINGS) technique. Subsequently, saliva samples from caries-free individuals in the healthy group (n = 57) and the caries group (n = 31) were compared. A significantly higher α-diversity (p < 0.0001) and a twofold higher relative abundance of Neisseria, Haemophilus, and Fusobacterium were recorded in saliva samples from the healthy group compared with the caries group. Differences observed were more pronounced when limiting the analyses to caries-free individuals in each group. Data from this cross-sectional analysis suggest that low levels of caries experience might associate with a characteristic salivary bacterial composition different from that in individuals with high caries experience. Consequently, longitudinal studies are required to determine if the composition of the salivary microbiota might be a predictive factor of caries risk at the individual level.

Keywords: Caries susceptibility; HOMINGS; clinical studies/trials; microbiology; oral diagnosis.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Salivary bacterial profiles in individuals with different levels of caries and caries experience. (a) Relative abundance of the 10 most predominant bacterial genera identified in saliva samples in each group. (b) Shannon index expressed as mean and range in each group. (c) Correspondence analysis visualized two-dimensionally with axes expressed as the two most crucial inertia values (cumulative inertia: 16.96%). Blue: healthy group; red: caries group.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Salivary bacterial profiles in caries-free individuals with different levels of caries experience. (a) Relative abundance of the 10 most predominant bacterial genera identified in saliva samples in caries-free individuals in each group. (b) Shannon index expressed as mean and range in caries-free individuals in each group. (c) Correspondence analysis visualized two-dimensionally with axes expressed as the with most crucial inertia values (cumulative inertia: 21.42%). Blue: healthy group; red: caries group.
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