Discrimination of Bacterial Community Structures among Healthy, Gingivitis, and Periodontitis Statuses through Integrated Metatranscriptomic and Network Analyses
Takashi Nemoto, Takahiko Shiba, Keiji Komatsu, Takayasu Watanabe, Masahiro Shimogishi, Masaki Shibasaki, Tatsuro Koyanagi, Takahiko Nagai, Sayaka Katagiri, Yasuo Takeuchi, Takanori Iwata
Abstract
The characteristics of the periodontal microbiome influence clinical periodontal status. Gingivitis involves reversible gingival inflammation without alveolar bone resorption. In contrast, periodontitis is an irreversible disease characterized by inflammatory destruction in both soft and hard tissues. An imbalance of the microbiome is present in both gingivitis and periodontitis. However, differences in microbiomes and their functional activities in the healthy, gingivitis, and periodontitis statuses are still inadequately understood. Furthermore, some inflamed gingival statuses do not consistently cause attachment loss. In this study, metatranscriptomic analyses were used to investigate the specific bacterial composition and gene expression patterns of the microbiomes of the healthy, gingivitis, and periodontitis statuses. In addition, co-occurrence network analysis revealed that the gingivitis site included features of networks observed in both the healthy and periodontitis sites. These results provide transcriptomic evidence to support gingivitis as an intermediate state between the healthy and periodontitis statuses.