Association of cigarette smoking with oral bacterial microbiota and cardiometabolic health in Chinese adults

The interplay among cigarette smoking status, oral microbiota, and cardiometabolic health is poorly understood. We aimed to examine the association of cigarette smoking status with oral microbiota and to assess the association of the identified microbial features with cardiometabolic risk factors in a Chinese population. This study included 587 participants within the Central China Cohort, including 111 smokers and 476 non-smokers, and their oral microbiota was profiled by 16S rRNA sequencing. Both oral microbial alpha- and beta-diversity were distinct between smokers and non-smokers (p < 0.05). With adjustment for sociodemographics, alcohol and tea drinking, tooth brushing frequency, and body mass index, the relative abundance of nine genera and 26 pathways, including the genus Megasphaera and two pathways involved in inositol degradation which have potentially adverse effects on cardiometabolic health, was significantly different between two groups (FDR q < 0.20). Multiple microbial features related to cigarette smoking were found to partly mediate the associations of cigarette smoking with serum triglycerides and C-reactive protein levels (p-mediation < 0.05). In conclusion, cigarette smoking status may have impacts on the oral microbial features, which may partially mediate the associations of cigarette smoking and cardiometabolic health. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12866-023-03061-y.