Journal of Oral Microbiology (Dec 2023)

Association of nine pathobionts with periodontitis in four South American and European countries

  • Gerard Àlvarez,
  • Alexandre Arredondo,
  • Sergio Isabal,
  • Wim Teughels,
  • Isabelle Laleman,
  • María José Contreras,
  • Lorena Isbej,
  • Enrique Huapaya,
  • Gerardo Mendoza,
  • Carolina Mor,
  • José Nart,
  • Vanessa Blanc,
  • Rubén León

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/20002297.2023.2188630
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1

Abstract

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ABSTRACTAim Our aim was to compare the prevalence and load of nine pathobionts in subgingival samples of healthy individuals and periodontitis patients from four different countries.Methods Five hundred and seven subgingival biofilm samples were collected from healthy subjects and periodontitis patients in Belgium, Chile, Peru and Spain. The prevalence and load of Eubacterium brachy, Filifactor alocis, Fretibacterium fastidiosum, Porphyromonas endodontalis, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Selenomonas sputigena, Treponema denticola, Tannerella forsythia and Treponema socranskii were measured by quantitative PCR.Results The association with periodontitis of all species, except for T. socranskii, was confirmed in all countries but Peru, where only P. endodontalis, P. gingivalis and T. denticola were found to be significantly associated. Moreover, most species showed higher loads at greater CAL and PPD, but not where there was BOP. Through Principal Component Analysis, samples showed clearly different distributions by diagnosis, despite observing a smaller separation in Peruvian samples.Conclusions Unlike prevalence, relative load was found to be a reliable variable to discriminate the association of the species with periodontitis. Based on this, F. alocis, P. endodontalis, P. gingivalis, T. denticola and T. forsythia may be biomarkers of disease in Belgium, Chile and Spain, due to their significantly higher abundance in periodontitis patients.

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