Abstract
This study was aimed to provide a longitudinal overview of the subgingival bacterial microbiome using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique, in women in the second trimester of pregnancy (between 14 and 24 weeks), and 48 h and 8 weeks postpartum. Of 31 women evaluated during pregnancy, 24 returned for the 48-h and 18 for their 8-week exams postpartum. Probing depth (PD), bleeding on probing, clinical attachment level, and presence of calculus were recorded. Subgingival plaque samples were collected, and FISH was used to identify the numbers of eight periodontal pathogens. Friedman test was used to compare differences between follow-up examinations, followed by a multiple comparison test for a post hoc pairwise comparison. Clinically, a significantly greater number of teeth with PD = 4-5 mm were found during pregnancy than on postpartum examinations. Microbial analysis showed a statistically significant decrease in cell count over the study period for Prevotella nigrescens. P. intermedia, Campylobacter rectus, and Porphyromonas gingivalis also decrease, although not significantly, and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans increased. No significant changes were found for Fusobacterium nucleatum, Treponema denticola, or Tannerella forsythia. Our data demonstrate a change in the subgingival microbiota during pregnancy, at least for P. nigrescens.
Highlights
The association between adverse pregnancy outcomes and periodontopathogenic microorganisms has been suggested by several authors, but as yet, there is no consensus in the literature
Of the 31 women evaluated during the second trimester, 24 returned for the 48-h examination and 18 for the 8-week examination postpartum; only the 18 women who participated in all three examinations were analyzed
There were changes in the percentage of each species in relation to the total bacterial cell counts at each point in the study (Figure), with decreases seen in P. intermedia, F. nucleatum, P. gingivalis, T. denticola, C. rectus and an increase in A. actinomycetemcomitans, these differences were not statistically significant
Summary
The association between adverse pregnancy outcomes and periodontopathogenic microorganisms has been suggested by several authors, but as yet, there is no consensus in the literature. Changes in periodontal status during pregnancy have been reported, the exact sequence of events from periodontal health to disease in pregnant women remains unknown.[1,2,3,4,5,6] Several factors have been investigated during research on periodontal disease in pregnancy, including hormone levels,[7,8] virulence factors of microorganisms,[9,10] changes in immunologic responses,[5,11] and microbiota.[12,13,14,15,16,17,18].
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