Ecological Shifts of Supragingival Microbiota in Association with Pregnancy

Abstract

Pregnancy is a physiological process with pronounced hormonal fluctuations in females, and relatively little is known regarding how pregnancy influences the ecological shifts of supragingival microbiota. In this study, supragingival plaques and salivary hormones were collected from 11 pregnant women during pregnancy (P1, ≤14 weeks; P2, 20–25 weeks; P3, 33–37 weeks) and the postpartum period (P4, 6 weeks after childbirth). Seven non-pregnant volunteers were sampled at the same time intervals. The microbial genetic repertoire was obtained by 16S rDNA sequencing. Our results indicated that the Shannon diversity in P3 was significantly higher than in the non-pregnant group. The principal coordinates analysis showed distinct clustering according to gestational status, and the partial least squares discriminant analysis identified 33 genera that may contribute to this difference. There were differentially distributed genera, among which Neisseria, Porphyromonas, and Treponema were over-represented in the pregnant group, while Streptococcus and Veillonella were more abundant in the non-pregnant group. In addition, 53 operational taxonomic units were observed to have positive correlations with sex hormones in a redundancy analysis, with Prevotella spp. and Treponema spp. being most abundant. The ecological events suggest that pregnancy has a role in shaping an at-risk-for-harm microbiota and provide a basis for etiological studies of pregnancy-associated oral dysbiosis.

Shifts in the bacterial community of supragingival plaque related to metabolic associated fatty liver disease

“…Consistent with previous studies [9,34], the core phyla identi ed in the present study included Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Fusobacteria, which accounted for 93.83% and 92.37% of the supragingival microbiomes of the control and MAFLD groups, respectively. Similarly, although the proportions differed, the majority of the observed genera (including Capnocytophaga, Leptotrichia, Corynebacterium, Actinomyces, Streptococcus, Fusobacterium, Prevotella, Veillonella, Neisseria, and Comamonas) existed in both groups, thereby also supporting the core genera of the supragingival microbiota [9]. A lower Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio is considered as a healthy trait in both the oral cavity and gut [22].…”

“…1A and 1B, respectively. In general, the dominant taxa of the two communities were similar and consistent with the core species of the supragingival microbiome [9]. The core phyla of all samples from both groups consisted of Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, Patescibacteria, Epsilonbacteraeota, and Spirochaetes.…”

“…con dence interval = 1.22-2.50) [29]. Considering supragingival plaque can be obtained with minimal discomfort and risk [9], it was collected in this study to explore the ecological shifts of oral microbiota in MAFLD patients. By screening with strict inclusion/exclusion criteria and matching of confounding factors, the differences among the participants were minimized as much as possible in order to focus on compositional and structural differences of the supragingival microbiota in MAFLD patients.…”

“…As a common site of oral sampling, the microbial pro le of supragingival plaque is thought to re ect the health status of the host, such as gestation [9], type 2 diabetes [10], and other conditions [11]. As compared with subgingival plaque, the supragingival microbiota can be acquired more easily and with less discomfort to the host [9]. Therefore, sampling of the supragingival microbiota presents a promising method to assess oral and systematic health, especially for a large-scale health census.…”

Peer Review #2 of "Stability of the vaginal, oral, and gut microbiota across pregnancy among African American women: the effect of socioeconomic status and antibiotic exposure (v0.1)"

“…[19][20][21] Comparatively fewer studies have investigated the microbiota of other body sites during pregnancy. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Although pregnancy involves profound hormonal, immunological and metabolic changes to support the fetoplacental unit, 34 there have been few studies investigating either shifts in microbiota composition across pregnancy at these different sites, or variation in composition at any site that may be explained by maternal characteristics and exposures other than race. 35,36 The prenatal vaginal microbiota.…”