West China Journal of Stomatology ›› 2015, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (6): 555-560.doi: 10.7518/hxkq.2015.06.001

    Next Articles

Oral microbiota: a promising predictor of human oral and systemic diseases

Xu Xin, He Jinzhi, Zhou Xuedong   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China)
  • Received:2015-09-15 Revised:2015-09-28 Online:2015-12-01 Published:2015-12-01

Abstract: A human oral microbiota is the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms found in human oral cavity. Oral microbiota exists mostly in the form of a biofilm and maintains a dynamic ecological equilibrium with the host body. However, the disturbance of this ecological balance inevitably causes oral infectious diseases, such as dental caries, apical periodontitis, periodontal diseases, pericoronitis, and craniofacial bone osteomyelitis. Oral microbiota is also correlated with many systemic diseases, including cancer, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, and preterm birth. Hence, oral microbiota has been considered as a potential biomarker of human diseases. The “Human Microbiome Project” and other metagenomic projects worldwide have advanced our knowledge of the human oral microbiota. The integration of these metadata has been the frontier of oral microbiology to improve clinical translation. By reviewing recent progress on studies involving oral microbiota-related oral and systemic diseases, we aimed to propose the essential role of oral microbiota in the prediction of the onset, progression, and prognosis of oral and systemic diseases. An oral microbiotabased prediction model helps develop a new paradigm of personalized medicine and benefits the human health in the postmetagenomics era.

Key words: oral microbiota, disease prediction, oral infectious diseases, systemic diseases, metagenomics

CLC Number: