Bacterial diversity in the oral cavity of adolescents with different caries susceptibilities / 华西口腔医学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To analyze the differences between the bacterial diversities in the saliva of caries-free and caries-susceptible adolescents through polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Twenty adolescent subjects aged 12-18 years were recruited and subdivided into two groups caries-free adolescents (n = 10) and caries-susceptible adolescents (n = 10). Saliva samples were collected. Total DNA was isolated directly from each sample. A portion of the 16S rRNA gene locus was PCR-amplified by using universal primers. Microbial diversity was analyzed through PCR-DGGE.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Analyzing the DGGE profile, we found that the composition of the saliva microbiome exhibited great intra-individual differences; the average band numbers of the caries-free adolescent group and the caries-susceptible adolescent group were 32.5 ± 3.7 and 27.3 ± 3.4, respectively. The differences between the groups were statistically significant (P = 0.008). Shannon-Wiener's indexes of the caries-susceptible adolescent group and the caries-free adolescent group were 2.5 ± 0.2 and 2.6 ± 0.2, respectively, but the differences between the groups were not significant (P = 0.405). Clustering analysis results suggested that most of the samples in the same group clustered together; this observation showed a high community structure similarity.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The microbial diversity and complexity of bacteria in saliva are significantly higher in caries-free adolescents than in caries-susceptible adolescents. During caries development, bacterial diversity in the saliva likely decreases.</p>