Metabolomic and metagenomic analyses reveal distinct microenvironmental signatures between clear aligner–associated and tooth surface dental plaque

作者：Qin Xie, Duo Li, Chengyan Ren, Yiheng Shen, Shiye Lin, Weihui Chen · 发表于：BMC Oral Health · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s12903-025-07231-4 · 被引用次数：1 · 研究领域：Oral microbiology and periodontitis research、Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics、Bone and Dental Protein Studies

OBJECTIVE: Clear aligners (CAs) create unique oral microenvironments that may alter oral microbial metabolism, potentially increasing the risk of disease. However, metabolomic differences between CA-facing and tooth surface plaque remain unexplored. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We compared the metabolites in dental plaque from 40 participants, including 20 undergoing CA treatment. Plaque samples were collected from both CA-facing and tooth surfaces under good plaque (GP) and poor plaque (PP) control conditions. Metabolomic profiling was performed using untargeted metabolomics, followed by sparse partial least squares discriminant analysis (sPLS-DA), network analysis, pathway enrichment, and MaAsLin3 analysis. Plaque metagenomic sequencing was conducted on 20 non-CA-treated participants to further elucidate the potential mechanisms responsible for the observed metabolite changes. RESULTS: Amino acids, peptides, and analogues were the most common types (20.72%) among the 2502 metabolites identified. sPLS-DA demonstrated clear separation between CA-facing and tooth surface plaque metabolomes, with significant differences validated by permutational multivariate analysis of variance, particularly under PP conditions. Tooth surface plaque showed higher metabolite abundance (GP: 386 upregulated vs. 28 downregulated; PP: 570 vs. 85). Network analysis indicated stronger interactions in PP groups, especially CA-facing plaque. The plaque index was primarily the main factor driving the tooth s...