Abstract
Dental implants are commonly used to replace missing teeth. However, the dysbiotic polymicrobial communities of peri-implant sites are responsible for peri-implant diseases, such as peri-implant mucositis and peri-implantitis. In this study, we analyzed the microbial characteristics of oral plaque from peri-implant pockets or sulci of healthy implants (n = 10), peri-implant mucositis (n = 8) and peri-implantitis (n = 6) sites using pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. An increase in microbial diversity was observed in subgingival sites of ailing implants, compared with healthy implants. Microbial co-occurrence analysis revealed that periodontal pathogens, such as Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Prevotella intermedia, were clustered into modules in the peri-implant mucositis network. Putative pathogens associated with peri-implantitis were present at a moderate relative abundance in peri-implant mucositis, suggesting that peri-implant mucositis an important early transitional phase during the development of peri-implantitis. Furthermore, the relative abundance of Eubacterium was increased at peri-implantitis locations, and co-occurrence analysis revealed that Eubacterium minutum was correlated with Prevotella intermedia in peri-implantitis sites, which suggests the association of Eubacterium with peri-implantitis. This study indicates that periodontal pathogens may play important roles in the shifting of healthy implant status to peri-implant disease.
Highlights
After implant placement to establish polymicrobial communities[9,10], and the failure of dental implants is commonly ascribed to inflammation of the supporting bone and related soft tissues caused by microbiota in peri-implant biofilms[11,12]
We measured the complexity of microbial communities in PI sites, which contained larger numbers of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and had higher Shannon index values than did healthy implant sites
In recent work using the 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing method[31], no significant difference in the microbial diversity of healthy and ailing implants was found, which is in part explained by the fact that peri-implant mucositis (PM) and PI patients were both assigned to the diseased group
Summary
After implant placement to establish polymicrobial communities[9,10], and the failure of dental implants is commonly ascribed to inflammation of the supporting bone and related soft tissues caused by microbiota in peri-implant biofilms[11,12]. Studies on the pathogenesis of peri-implant microbiota have analyzed individual bacterial species in complex microbial communities. Previous studies, using culture-based methods, 16S rRNA gene PCR, or DNA-DNA hybridization techniques, commonly addressed roles played by individual bacterial species and afforded limited information on the overall diversity of the peri-implant environment. Pyrosequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA is a next-generation sequencing method that simultaneously generates thousands of sequences from individual samples Such an unprecedented amount of information allows comprehensive examination of a taxonomically heterogeneous community and has revealed ever-greater levels of microbial diversity[20,21]. This study was performed to compare the differences of the microbial communities of healthy implants, PM and PI, aiming to reveal the potential pathogens associated with peri-implant diseases
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