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.
Highlights
The oral microbiota comprises more than 700 bacterial species, and co-evolves over the long term with the host beginning at birth (Aas et al, 2005)
This study, which was carried out using Illumina MiSeq sequencing to characterize the supragingival microbiota of pregnant women in comparison with non-pregnant individuals, showed clear differences in the community structure and composition that were previously not evident using experimental approaches
This work confirms previous findings that there is a group of core species (Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Fusobacteria, and Actinobacteria) in a healthy oral cavity (Li et al, 2013; Utter et al, 2016), and provides a further understanding of host-induced alterations in the bacterial community by factors such as female sex steroids during pregnancy
Summary
The oral microbiota comprises more than 700 bacterial species, and co-evolves over the long term with the host beginning at birth (Aas et al, 2005). The microorganisms survive daily physical and chemical stimuli from food intake and oral hygiene measures, resulting in a finely tuned ecosystem (Zaura et al, 2014). This natural state is not always easy to maintain and can be disturbed by numerous factors, most of which are host-derived. Supragingival Microbiota during Pregnancy (Griffen et al, 2012; Yang et al, 2012; Guerrero-Preston et al, 2016) Hormonal imbalances, such as those observed with diabetes and obesity, can contribute to the development of dysbiosis (Stabholz et al, 2010). The essential role of oral microbiota has been established in pregnancy-associated dysbiosis
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
