Oral Epithelial Cell Responses to Multispecies Microbial Biofilms

This report describes the use of a novel model of multispecies biofilms to stimulate profiles of cytokines/chemokines from oral epithelial cells that contribute to local inflammation in the periodontium. Streptococcus gordonii (Sg)/S. oralis (So)/S. sanguinis (Ss) and Sg/Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn)/Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) biofilms elicited significantly elevated levels of IL-1 alpha and showed synergistic stimulatory activity compared with an additive effect of the 3 individual bacteria. Only the Sg/Actinomyces naeslundii (An)/Fn multispecies biofilms elicited IL-6 levels above those of control. IL-8 was a primary response to the Sg/An/Fn biofilms, albeit the level was not enhanced compared with a predicted composite level from the monospecies challenges. These results represent some of the first data documenting alterations in profiles of oral epithelial cell responses to multispecies biofilms.