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Chicken or the Egg: Microbial Alterations in Biopsy Samples of Patients with Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders

Pathology & Oncology Research volume 25, pages 1023–1033 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Oral carcinogenesis often leads to the alteration of the microbiota at the site of the tumor, but data are scarce regarding the microbial communities of oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs). Punch biopsies were taken from healthy and non-healthy mucosa of OPMD patients to analyze the microbiome using metagenome sequencing. In healthy oral mucosa biopsies the bacterial phyla Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes were detected by Ion Torrent sequencing. The same phyla as well as the phyla Fibrobacteres and Spirochaetes were present in the OPMD biopsies. On the species level, there were 10 bacterial species unique to the healthy tissue and 35 species unique to the OPMD lesions whereas eight species were detected in both samples. We observed that the relative abundance of Streptococcus mitis decreased in the OPMD lesions compared to the uninvolved tissue. In contrast, the relative abundance of Fusobacterium nucleatum, implicated in carcinogenesis, was elevated in OPMD. We detected markedly increased bacterial diversity in the OPMD lesions compared to the healthy oral mucosa. The ratio of S. mitis and F. nucleatum are characteristically altered in the OPMD lesions compared to the healthy mucosa.

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Fig. 1: Representative pictures from OPMD tissue samples
Fig. 2: Distribution of taxonomic domains
Fig. 3: Bacterial diversity
Fig. 4: Comparison of the detected bacterial species
Fig. 5: Ratio of Streptococci in the mucosal lesion
Fig. 6: Fusobacterium nucleatum in the mucosal lesion
Fig. 7: Fusobacterium nucleatum-specific PCR of the healthy tissue and the OPMD

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Acknowledgements

This work was in part supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the NKFI-6-K funding scheme (11493 project), GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00015, János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and GINOP 2.3.2-15-2016-00011.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Oral Surgery, University of Szeged, Tisza Lajos krt. 64, Szeged, H-6720, Hungary

    Gabor Decsi, Istvan Sonkodi & Katalin Nagy

  2. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Clinical Centre, Institute of Clinical Microbiology, University of Szeged, Semmelweis u. 6, Szeged, H-6725, Hungary

    Jozsef Soki & Edit Urban

  3. Biological Research Centre, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Temesvari krt. 62, Szeged, H-6726, Hungary

    Bernadett Pap, Gabriella Dobra, Maria Harmati & Krisztina Buzas

  4. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Clinical Centre, Department of Traumatology, University of Szeged, Semmelweis u. 6, Szeged, H-6725, Hungary

    Sandor Kormondi

  5. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Szeged, Kozep fasor 52, Szeged, H-6726, Hungary

    Tibor Pankotai

  6. dicomLAB Ltd., Pulz u. 46/b, Szeged, H-6724, Hungary

    Gabor Braunitzer

  7. Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Oral Biology and Experimental Dental Research, University of Szeged, Tisza Lajos krt. 64, Szeged, H-6720, Hungary

    Janos Minarovits & Krisztina Buzas

  8. Department of Dermatology and Allergology, University of Szeged, Szeged, H-6720, Hungary

    Istvan Balazs Nemeth

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  1. Gabor Decsi
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  14. Krisztina Buzas
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Krisztina Buzas.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical Approval

The study protocol conformed to the Declaration of Helsinki in all respects and was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the University of Szeged (No. 3161).

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Decsi, G., Soki, J., Pap, B. et al. Chicken or the Egg: Microbial Alterations in Biopsy Samples of Patients with Oral Potentially Malignant Disorders. Pathol. Oncol. Res. 25, 1023–1033 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12253-018-0457-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12253-018-0457-x

Keywords

  • OPMD
  • Oral microbiome
  • Metagenome sequencing
  • Lichen
  • Leukoplakia