Effect of Pregnancy Gingivitis on Maternal Saliva Microbiota

Pregnant women undergo a myriad of physiological changes during this stage, including important hormonal variations. Pregnancy gingivitis is a condition that affects up to 30% to 100% of women, is related to hormonal modifications, and could play an important role in gestational gut colonization and immunological training in the newborn. Nonetheless, oral health is not always considered part of routine prenatal care. In this study, we collected saliva samples of pregnant women with and without pregnancy gingivitis and analyzed the oral microbiota through 16S sequencing. In addition, meconium from the infants of participating women was also analyzed. The oral microbiota of pregnant women with and without pregnancy gingivitis did not show significant diversity differences. However, significant differences in microbiome composition were observed. In addition, it appears that microbiome composition of the offspring of mothers with gingivitis may also differ from that of mothers without gingivitis, although the number of available samples did not allow definite conclusions. As such, a larger cohort and deeper sequencing methods are needed to demonstrate the differences in the oral microbiota of pregnant women with and without gingivitis and to explore the possibility of bacterial translocation from the maternal gingiva to the fetal gut.