Intra-oral single-site comparisons of periodontal and peri-implant microbiota in health and disease

Abstract

Objective: Periodontitis and peri-implantitis are oral infectious-inflammatory diseases that share similarities in their pathology and etiology. Our objective was to characterize the single-site subgingival and submucosal microbiomes of implant-rehabilitated, partially dentate Chinese subjects (n = 18) presenting with both periodontitis and peri-implantitis.

Materials and methods: Subgingival/submucosal plaque samples were collected from four clinically distinct sites in each subject: peri-implantitis submucosa (DI), periodontal pocket (DT), clinically healthy (unaffected) peri-implant submucosa (HI), and clinically healthy (unaffected) subgingival sulcus (HT). The bacterial microbiota present was analyzed using Illumina MiSeq sequencing.

Results: Twenty-six phyla and 5,726 operational taxonomic units (OTUs, 97% sequence similarity cutoff) were identified. Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Synergistetes, TM7, and Spirochaetes comprised 99.6% of the total reads detected. Bacterial communities within the DI, DT, HI, and HT sites shared high levels of taxonomic similarity. Thirty-one "core species" were present in >90% sites, with Streptococcus infantis/mitis/oralis (HMT-070/HMT-071/HMT-638/HMT-677) and Fusobacterium sp. HMT-203/HMT-698 being particularly prevalent and abundant. Beta-diversity analyses (PERMANOVA test, weighted UniFrac) revealed the largest variance in the microbiota was at the subject level (46%), followed by periodontal health status (4%). Differing sets of OTUs were associated with periodontitis and peri-implantitis sites, respectively. This included putative "periodontopathogens," such as Prevotella, Porphyromonas, Tannerella, Bacteroidetes [G-5], and Treponema spp. Interaction network analysis identified several putative patterns underlying dysbiosis in periodontitis/peri-implantitis sites.

Conclusions: Species (OTU) composition of the periodontal and peri-implant microbiota varied widely between subjects. The inter-subject variations in subgingival/submucosal microbiome composition outweighed differences observed between implant vs. tooth sites, or between diseased vs. healthy (unaffected) peri-implant/periodontal sites.

Keywords: Illumina; dental implant; etiology; oral disease; oral microbiome; peri-implantitis; periodontitis.