Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
Marsico Lung Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Mar 28;19(3):e0301016. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301016. eCollection 2024.
Saliva is a readily accessible and inexpensive biological specimen that enables investigation of the oral microbiome, which can serve as a biomarker of oral and systemic health. There are two routine approaches to collect saliva, stimulated and unstimulated; however, there is no consensus on how sampling method influences oral microbiome metrics. In this study, we analyzed paired saliva samples (unstimulated and stimulated) from 88 individuals, aged 7-18 years. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we investigated the differences in bacterial microbiome composition between sample types and determined how sampling method affects the distribution of taxa associated with untreated dental caries and gingivitis. Our analyses indicated significant differences in microbiome composition between the sample types. Both sampling methods were able to detect significant differences in microbiome composition between healthy subjects and subjects with untreated caries. However, only stimulated saliva revealed a significant association between microbiome diversity and composition in individuals with diagnosed gingivitis. Furthermore, taxa previously associated with dental caries and gingivitis were preferentially enriched in individuals with each respective disease only in stimulated saliva. Our study suggests that stimulated saliva provides a more nuanced readout of microbiome composition and taxa distribution associated with untreated dental caries and gingivitis compared to unstimulated saliva.
唾液是一种易于获取且廉价的生物样本，可用于研究口腔微生物组，而口腔微生物组可以作为口腔和全身健康的生物标志物。有两种常规方法来采集唾液，即刺激和非刺激；然而，对于采样方法如何影响口腔微生物组指标，目前尚无共识。在这项研究中，我们分析了 88 名年龄在 7-18 岁的个体的配对唾液样本（非刺激和刺激）。我们使用 16S rRNA 基因测序技术，研究了样本类型之间细菌微生物组组成的差异，并确定了采样方法如何影响与未经处理的龋齿和牙龈炎相关的分类群的分布。我们的分析表明，样本类型之间的微生物组组成存在显著差异。两种采样方法都能够检测到健康受试者和未经治疗的龋齿受试者之间微生物组组成的显著差异。然而，只有刺激唾液显示出微生物多样性和组成与诊断为牙龈炎的个体之间存在显著关联。此外，与龋齿和牙龈炎相关的分类群在患有相应疾病的个体中仅在刺激唾液中优先富集。我们的研究表明，与非刺激唾液相比，刺激唾液提供了与未经处理的龋齿和牙龈炎相关的微生物组组成和分类群分布更细致的结果。
