The Subgingival Microbiome of Periodontal Pockets With Different Probing Depths in Chronic and Aggressive Periodontitis: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Periodontitis is a kind of infectious disease initiated by colonization of subgingival periodontal pathogens, which cause destruction of tooth-supporting tissues, and is a predominant threat to oral health as the most common cause of loss of teeth. The aim of this pilot study was to characterize the subgingival bacterial biodiversity of periodontal pockets with different probing depths in patients with different forms of periodontitis. Twenty-one subgingival plaque samples were collected from three patients with chronic periodontitis (ChP), three patients with aggressive periodontitis (AgP) and three periodontally healthy subjects (PH). Each patient with periodontitis was sampled at three sites, at different probing depths (PDs, one each at 4 mm, 5-6 mm, and ≥ 7 mm). Using 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic analysis, we found that subgingival communities in health and periodontitis samples largely differed. Meanwhile, <i>Acholeplasma, Fretibacterium, Porphyromonas, Peptococcus, Treponema_2, Defluviitaleaceae_UCG_011, Filifactor</i>, and <i>Mycoplasma</i> increased with the deepening of the pockets in ChP, whilst only <i>Corynebacterium</i> was negatively associated with PD. In AgP, <i>Corynebacterium</i> and <i>Klebsiella</i> were positively associated with PD, while <i>Serratia, Pseudoramibacter, Defluviitaleaceae_UCG_011</i>, and <i>Desulfobulbus</i> were negatively associated with PD. And among these two groups, <i>Corynebacterium</i> shifted differently. Moreover, in subgingival plaque, the unweighted UniFrac distances between samples from pockets with different PD in the same patients were significantly lower than those from pockets within the same PD category from different patients. This study demonstrated the shift of the subgingival microbiome in individual teeth sites during disease development. Within the limitation of the relative small sample size, this pilot study shed new light on the dynamic relationship between the extent of periodontal destruction and the subgingival microbiome.