Relationship between oral and gut microbiota in elderly people,

Megumi Iwauchi, Ayako Horigome, Kentaro Ishikawa, Aya Mikuni, Manabu Nakano, Jin‐zhong Xiao, Toshitaka Odamaki, Shouji Hironaka

Version of Record online: 15 July 2019

 

Recent studies have shown that oral bacteria might induce systemic inflammation through alteration of gut microbiota. We investigated the relationship between oral and gut microbiota and evaluated the transition of oral bacteria to the gastrointestinal tract. Unweighted UniFrac distance revealed that the elderly group had a higher similarity between fecal and subgingival plaque microbiota than the adult group. Moreover, a significantly higher prevalence of some bacterial taxa found in oral samples was observed in the feces of the elderly group than of the adult group. Our results suggest that the prevalence of oral bacterial transition to gut is higher in the elderly than in adults; thus, we expect that in the elderly, oral health care will affect gut microbiota composition and consequently promote human health.