Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to explore genes responsive to biofilm and immune infiltration analysis in human gingival fibroblasts cells.

The correlation between oral bacteria and dental implants failure has been reported. However, the effect and mechanism of bacteria during dental implants is unclear. In this study, we explored key genes and candidate gene clusters in human gingival fibroblasts (HGF) cells in response to biofilm through weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and differential genes analysis using gene expression matrix, GSE134481, downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. We obtained 325 genes in the module significantly associated with infection and 113 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the biofilm; 62 DEGs indicated significant correlation with injury. Multiple immune pathways, such as the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signaling pathway, were considerably enriched. We obtained a candidate genes cluster containing 12 genes - , and ; we observed 5 candidate hub genes associated with infection - , and . The fraction of macrophage M0 cells was significantly increased in biofilm treatment compared with control; expression of and was significantly positively correlated with macrophage M0 cells. Our findings present a fierce inflammation changes in the transcript level of HGF in response to .