The prevalence of fimA genotypes of Porphyromonas gingivalis in patients with chronic periodontitis: A meta-analysis

FimA is an important virulence factor of Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis). According to its DNA sequence, the fimA genotype of P. gingivalis can be divided into six categories (I, Ib, Ⅱ, III, IV, V). The fimA gene may be a key factor in the diversity of virulence found in P. gingivalis. Moreover, the role fimA plays in the pathogenesis of P. gingivalis is closely associated with periodontitis, making it an important factor of study for disease prevention and treatment. In this study, the prevalence of fimA genotypes of P. gingivalis in patients with periodontal diseases was evaluated by meta-analysis. The Embase and PubMed databases were searched for articles from 1999 to 2019 using the following search terms: Porphyromonas gingivalis or P. gingivalis; periodontitis or chronic periodontal disease; fimA or fimA genotype. The reference lists of relevant published articles were searched manually. A total of 17 studies were included in this report. A statistical software package (Stata, version 11.0/mp, StataCorp) was utilized to calculate and analyze the P. gingivalis fimA genotypes for each combined incidence estimate. The pooled rates of fimA Ⅰ, fimA Ib, fimA Ⅱ, fimA Ⅲ, fimA Ⅳ and fimA Ⅴ genotypes of P. gingivalis were 8.4% (95% CI: 5.7–11.1), 11.7% (95% CI: 7.4–16), 42.9% (95% CI: 34.2–51.7), 6.5% (95% CI: 5.1–7.9), 17.8% (95% CI: 9.0–26.5), and 3.2% (95% CI: 1.6–4.9), respectively. This study showed that the fimA Ⅱ and fimA Ⅳ genotypes of P. gingivalis are highly present in patients with periodontal disease. Therefore, these two genotypes may be related to the pathogenesis and progress of periodontal disease, one of the main risk factors of periodontitis.