Microbial diversity in primary endodontic infections: demographics and radiographic characteristics

• Published in: Clinical oral investigations Vol. 28; no. 11; p. 591
• Main Authors: Schuweiler, David, Ordinola-Zapata, Ronald, Dietz, Matthew, Lima, Bruno P., Noblett, W. Craig, Staley, Christopher
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 11-10-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Community composition; Demographics; Demography; Dental caries; Dental Pulp Cavity - diagnostic imaging; Dental Pulp Cavity - microbiology; Dental Pulp Diseases - diagnostic imaging; Dental Pulp Diseases - microbiology; Dentistry; Endodontics; Female; Humans; Infections; Male; Medicine; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Middle Aged; Periodontitis; Radiography; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; Root canals; rRNA; Species richness; Teeth; Next-generation sequencing; Biofilms; Apical periodontitis
• ISSN: 1436-3771; 1432-6981; 1436-3771
• DOI: 10.1007/s00784-024-05982-y

Objective
To analyze if the microbiome community composition in primary endodontic infections is associated with clinical or radiographic factors.
Materials and methods
Seventy-one patients with primary endodontic infections were evaluated for percussion tenderness, presence of a sinus tract, presence of caries, sex, probing depth > 4 mm, and age. Samples from the root canals were obtained and the microbiome was subsequently characterized by 16 S rRNA amplicon sequencing. For the radiographic analysis, a subset of 12 samples with a periapical index (PAI) ≤ 2 were compared with 19 samples with PAI of 5. The Shannon and Chao1 indices were used to measure alpha diversity. Differences in abundances of genera were evaluated using the Kruskal-Wallis test with Bonferroni’s correction. Differences in community composition were evaluated using analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) with Bray-Curtis dissimilarity matrices.
Results
No significant differences in microbiome composition relative to clinical factors were found using ANOSIM. Teeth within the two categories of periapical index showed a similar number of species richness, and alpha diversity values
P
 > 0.05. Community composition was significantly affected by the periapical index (ANOSIM
P
 = 0.039,
R
 = 0.10). Larger radiographic lesions demonstrated significant increase in
Prevotellaceae
,
Olsenella
, and the motile bacteria
Oribacterium
,
Selenomonadaceae spp
., and
Treponema
.
Conclusion
Clinical factors associated with apical periodontitis have a limited impact on the root canal microbiome composition. Community composition appears to be affected in teeth with large apical lesions.