Abstract
BACKGROUND: Dental implants have become well-established in oral rehabilitation for fully or partially edentulous patients. However, peri-implantitis often leads to the failure of dental implants. The aim of this study was to understand the core microbiome associated with peri-implantitis and evaluate potential peri-implantitis pathogens based on canine peri-implantitis model. RESULTS: In this study, three beagle dogs were used to build peri-implantitis models with ligature-induced strategy. The peri-implant sulcular fluids were collected at four different phases based on disease severity during the peri-implantitis development. Microbial compositions during peri-implantitis development were monitored and evaluated. The microbes were presented with operational taxonomic unit (OTU) classified at 97% identity of the high-throughput 16S rRNA gene fragments. Microbial diversity and richness varied during peri-implantitis. At the phylum-level, Firmicutes decreased and Bacteroides increased during peri-implantitis development. At the genus-level, Peptostreptococcus decreased and Porphyromonas increased, suggesting peri-implantitis pathogens might be assigned to these two genera. Further species-level and co-occurrence network analyses identified several potential keystone species during peri-implantitis development, and some OTUs were potential peri-implantitis pathogens. CONCLUSION: In summary, canine peri-implantitis models help to identify several potential keystone peri-implantitis associated species. The canine model can give insight into human peri-implantitis associated microbiota.