Salivary microbiome in patients undergoing hemodialysis and its associations with the duration of the dialysis

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, especially those with end stage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing hemodialysis (HD), exhibit high prevalence of periodontitis. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the periodontal status of HD patients and its relationship with salivary microbiome. METHODS: One hundred eight HD patients and one hundred healthy control individuals were recruited. They were subjected to periodontal examination followed by saliva samples collection for 16S rRNA gene sequencing. RESULTS: The HD patients were with worse periodontal health status, and exhibited higher salivary microbial diversity and lower richness. The periodontal pathogens were significantly enriched in the HD patients. The inferred functional analyze showed microbes enriched in the HD patients were mainly related to metabolism. Despite the periodontal status and overall structure of the microbiome were not significantly altered as the HD duration prolonged, the abundance of Lachnospiraceae [G-2] sp. |HMT_096| is positively correlated with the duration of HD and the community periodontal index (CPI). Five OTUs (operational taxonomic units) belonging to the phyla Firmicutes were enriched as the duration prolonged, and four OTUs originated from the phyla Proteobacteria were negatively related with the CPI index. ESRD patients undergoing HD exhibited microbiota structural, compositional and functional differences compared with the healthy controls. And the species changed as the duration of hemodialysis prolonged. CONCLUSIONS: End stage renal disease changes salivary microbiome and is a risk factor for oral dysbiosis.