Salivary Microbiome Profile of Diabetes and Periodontitis in a Chinese Population

There is a bidirectional association between diabetes and periodontitis. However, the effect of diabetes on the periodontitis salivary microbiota has not been elucidated. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the presence of diabetes on the microbiota among Chinese patients with periodontitis.

Unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected from the periodontitis with diabetes group (TC), chronic periodontitis group (CP), and periodontally healthy and systemically healthy group (H) by spitting method. Bacterial genomic DNA was PCR-amplified at the V4 variable region of 16S rRNA gene. The library was constructed according to the obtained sequence results, and biological analysis and statistical analysis were carried out. Functional prediction of three groups of microbial communities was performed by the PICRUSt algorithm.

There was no significant difference in bacterial diversity between the TC and CP groups. Compared with the H group, the TC group and CP group presented a higher diversity of salivary flora. Firmicutes, Streptococcus, Haemophilus, Veillonella, and Haemophilus parainfluenzae dominated the H group. Corynebacterium, Leptotrichia, Dialister, Comamonas, Capnocytophaga, Catonella, Filifactor, Campylobacter, Treponema, Campylobacter concisus, Prevotella oralis, and Porphyromonas gingivalis were significantly enriched in the TC and CP groups. Among them, Treponema and P. oralis were the most abundant in the TC group. The PICRUSt results showed that many pathways related to cell motility and functional metabolism of the salivary microbial flora changed in the TC group and the CP group.

Diabetes was not the main factor causing the altered diversity of salivary microbiota in patients with periodontitis; however, the presence of diabetes altered the abundance of some microbiota in saliva.