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-1α 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. © international & american associations for dental research 2013.