Abstract
Background: The purpose of the present investigation was to characterize the effect of probiotics on the composition of the salivary microbiota and salivary levels of inflammation-related proteins during short-term sugar stress. We tested the hypotheses that consumption of probiotics may partly counteract the detrimental influence of sugar stress on oral homeostasis. Methods: The present study was a five-week, blinded, randomized controlled trial with four study arms—A: sucrose and probiotic (n = 20); B: sucrose and placebo (n = 20); C: xylitol and probiotic (n = 20); D: xylitol and placebo (n = 20). Saliva samples were collected at baseline and after two and five weeks. The salivary microbiota was characterized by means of 16S rDNA sequencing, and sequences were referenced against the Human Oral Microbiome Database (HOMD). Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) and transferrin levels were quantified using immunoassays. Results: Sugar stress induced a significant increase in the relative abundance of the genus Streptococcus from 29.8% at baseline to 42.9% after two weeks. Changes were transient and were completely reversed three weeks after discontinuation of sugar stress. Xylitol and probiotics alone had no effect on the salivary microbiota, whereas the combination of xylitol and probiotics induced a significant decrease in the relative abundance of Streptococcus species from 37.6% at baseline to 23.0% at week 2. Sugar stress significantly increased salivary transferrin levels, and the effect was partly counteracted by concomitant use of probiotics. Conclusions: The data clearly demonstrate an impact of combined consumption of xylitol and probiotics on the composition of the salivary microbiota. Future studies are needed to evaluate whether the combined use of xylitol and the probiotic strains tested could have clinically protective effects during periods of sugar stress.
Highlights
The purpose of the present randomized controlled trial was to characterize the impact of probiotics on the salivary microbiota and salivary levels of inflammation-related proteins during short-term sugar stress
The main finding was that the combined consumption of xylitol and the selected probiotic strains induced a significant decrease in relative abundance of Streptococcus species, which was opposite to the changes to the salivary microbiota mediated by short-term sugar stress
The perturbation of frequent sucrose rinsing had an immediate impact on the composition of the salivary microbiota, as was clearly illuminated by principal component analysis (PCA), which demonstrated separation of the samples collected after two weeks of sugar stress as compared to the corresponding baseline samples (Figure 2A)
Summary
Less is known on the immediate impact of sugar stress on oral homeostasis, and adequately powered in vivo studies characterizing the effect of excessive carbohydrate intake on the composition of the oral microbiota in orally healthy individuals are missing. To the best of our knowledge, this model system has not previously been used to characterize the short-term effect of frequent carbohydrate consumption on oral homeostasis and to disentangle if concomitant use of probiotics has any protective effect when oral homeostasis is stressed by frequent sugar intake. The purpose of the present investigation was to characterize the effect of probiotics during short-term sugar stress on oral homeostasis. PB01 DSM14870 and Latilactobacillus curvatus (formerly Lactobacillus) EB10 DSM32307, may partly counteract the detrimental influence of short-term sugar stress, as evaluated by compositional changes of the salivary microbiota and salivary levels of inflammationrelated proteins
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