Abstract
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) and periodontal disease (PD) are characterised as bacterial dysbioses. Both are associated with an increased risk of poor pregnancy outcomes, yet it is unknown whether PD and BV are related. We characterised the oral microbiota of young South African females with a high prevalence of BV and investigated the association between oral communities and vaginal microbiota. DNA was extracted from vaginal lateral wall, saliva and supragingival plaque samples from 94 adolescent females (aged 15–19 years). 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the V4 hypervariable region was performed for analysis of the oral and vaginal microbiota and BV status was determined by Nugent scoring. The core oral microbiota was predominately comprised of Firmicutes followed by Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. The salivary microbiota of participants with BV was more diverse than those with lactobacillus-dominated communities (p = 0.030). PD-associated bacterial species, including Prevotella intermedia and Porphyromonas endodontalis were enriched in the supragingival microbiota of women with non-optimal vaginal communities compared to those with Lactobacillus-dominant communities, while Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Prevotella intermedia were enriched in the saliva of women with non-optimal vaginal microbiota. These data suggest a relationship between oral and vaginal dysbiosis, warranting further investigation into whether they are casually related.
Highlights
Despite the number of exposures the oral cavity experiences on a daily basis, the core human oral microbiota has been described as consisting of six major phyla, representing 96% of bacteria found in the saliva of healthy individuals, namely—Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Spirochaetes and Fusobacteria [1,2,3,4]
Distinct oral microbiotas have been observed in non-disease states, for example in pregnant and lactating women [10], indicating that homeostatic alterations may manifest in the oral microbiota
Bacterial DNA was extracted from vaginal lateral wall (LW), saliva (SAL) and supragingival plaque (SGP) samples of 94 participants for which all three sample types were available and who had a Nugent score of 7–10 (BV positive) or 0–3 (BV negative)
Summary
Despite the number of exposures the oral cavity experiences on a daily basis, the core human oral microbiota has been described as consisting of six major phyla, representing 96% of bacteria found in the saliva of healthy individuals, namely—Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Spirochaetes and Fusobacteria [1,2,3,4]. An altered oral microbiota has been identified as a marker of several diseases, including diabetes [5], cancer [6], HIV [7], autoimmune disease [8] and systemic inflammation [9]. Periodontal disease (PD) is a polymicrobial condition in which development of an inflammatory periodontal pocket is associated with a reduction in commensal oral bacteria and an expansion of keystone pathobiont bacterial species, such as Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Prevotella spp., Campylobacter rectus, Parvimonas micra, Tanerella forsythensis and Tanerella denticola [11,12]. Smoking/tobacco use, obesity, poor oral hygiene and nutrition have all been associated with an increased risk of PD [16,17]. PD prior to and during pregnancy has been associated with a two- to four-fold risk of preterm birth (PTB) [18,19,20], a leading cause of infant mortality and morbidity worldwide [21,22]
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