Exploring the Role of Fusobacterium nucleatum in Preterm Birth: A Narrative Review

Abstract

In recent years, substantive attention has been drawn to the relationship between oral microbiome homeostatic equilibrium disruption and systemic health, demonstrating the negative impacts of this reciprocal biological interplay. Increasingly, there is a concern over the potential noxious effect of oral microbiome dysbiosis on obstetric poor outcomes, focusing on preterm birth. This epidemiological observation remains unexplained, although biologically plausible mechanism has been proposed. Intrauterine infection has long been associated with adverse pregnancy, when the elicitation of an immune response is determinant. There is evidence that Fusobacterium nucleatum (FN), a Gram-negative anaerobe ubiquitous in the oral cavity, infects the mouse placenta originating in the decidua basalis. Based on the current data in literature, we performed a review to provide resources for the explanation of the potential impact of microbiome dysbiosis on poor obstetric outcomes, focusing on the role of FN.

Temporomandibular Disorders and Fibromyalgia: A Narrative Review

“…The results in the study of Salvetti et al [22] suggest that facial pain in patients with TeP could be an integrating part of FM, while facial pain in patients with TrP is probably an expression of myofascial pain as described by Simons et al [48]. Clinicians should know the peculiar characteristics of TeP and TrP [42], [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], [54], [55], [56] to make a differential diagnosis between localized and systemic muscle disorders, which may overlap in symptoms [57], and to detect the correct origin of facial pain. In fact, orofacial pain in FM patients with TePs seems to be related to the syndromic picture, while in those with TrPs, it seems to be an expression of MFP.…”