Dental Biofilm as Etiological Agent of Canine Periodontal Disease

Periodontal disease is one of the most common health problem affecting dogs. The disease is more prevalent in small breeds and brachycephalic breeds compared to large breeds, and incidence increases with advancing age. In first stage it affects only the gingival tissue and causes gingivitis. It later develops into periodontitis which involves changes in other periodontium tissues. Main etiological agents of periodontal disease are pathogenic bacteria of dental biofilm, and products of their metabolism. In human, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema denticola and Tannerella forsythia play a key role in the etiology of periodontal disease. Also, there are many other candidates as human periodontal pathogens, including Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Prevotella intermedia, Prevotella nigrescens, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Parvimonas micra, Eikenella corrodens, Capnocytophaga gingivalis, Eubacterium nodatum and Campylobacter rectus. Since periodontal diseases in dogs are similar to human diseases in terms of disease progression and clinical manifestation, we can assume their common etiology. This chapter is focused on review about canine dental biofilm and about members of biofilm as potential causative agent of canine periodontal disease

Methods for Searching of Potential Beneficial Bacteria and Their Products in Dental Biofilm

Dental microbiota is associated with different types of organisms with dentition including humans and is responsible for many oral diseases all over the world. Bacteria in a dental biofilm are important also in other diseases, i.e., endocarditis, pulmonary fibrosis, and arthritis, and some findings predict the connection of dental microbiota with cancerogenesis. Not all oral bacterial representatives are pathogenic or potentially pathogenic. Dental biofilm consists of numerous different bacteria that may have beneficial characteristics for good condition of dental and oral health. Searching for bacteria or their products with the beneficial effect is important in the development of new biologically based strategies for the prevention or treatment of oral and dental diseases. For searching of potential probiotic candidates are useful methods that could map phenotypic or genotypic characteristics of studied bacteria. This chapter is focused on the spectrum of these basic methods searching for beneficial bacteria and their products

Antibiotic-Treated SPF Mice as a Gnotobiotic Model

Decontamination of specific pathogen-free (SPF) mice of BALB/c line was accomplished by administration of amoxicillin per os potentiated with potassium clavulanate at a dose of 387.11 mg/kg body weight and ciprofloxacin administered s.c. at a dose of 18.87 mg/kg body weight every 12 h for 5 days. This resulted in a decreased viability of microorganisms in feces and the cecal content of mice and decreased counts of cultivable microorganisms in the feces, which by day 3 of study declined below the recovery level and to the reduction of animal microbiota to two detected cultivable species, namely Escherichia coli (GenBank KX086704) and Enterococcus sp. (GenBank KX086705). Convalescence of decontaminated animals under gnotobiotic conditions for 10 days prevented restoration of species diversity of mice microbiota and sufficed to return the metabolic, hematological and morphological values to the physiological range. It also restored the fermentative activity of the intestine to the level similar to that observed before antibiotic treatment. Animals subjected to this procedure can be used in further studies. As a result, we created a mouse gnoto model with reduced and controlled microbiota without alteration of the overall health status of the respective animals

Inhibitory Effect of Bacillus licheniformis Strains Isolated from Canine Oral Cavity

Bacillus licheniformis is used in a broad spectrum of areas, including some probiotic preparations for human and veterinary health. Moreover, B. licheniformis strains are known producers of various bioactive substances with antimicrobial and antibiofilm effects. In searching for new potentially beneficial bacteria for oral health, the inhibitory effect of B. licheniformis strains isolated from canine dental biofilm against pathogenic oral bacteria was evaluated. The antimicrobial effect of neutralized cell-free supernatants (nCFS) was assessed in vitro on polystyrene microtiter plates. Furthermore, molecular and morphological analyses were executed to evaluate the production of bioactive substances. To determine the nature of antimicrobial substance present in nCFS of B. licheniformis A-1-5B-AP, nCFS was exposed to the activity of various enzymes. The nCFS of B. licheniformis A-1-5B-AP significantly (p < 0.0001) reduced the growth of Porphyromonas gulae 3/H, Prevotella intermedia 1/P and Streptococcus mutans ATCC 35668. On the other hand, B. licheniformis A-2-11B-AP only significantly (p < 0.0001) inhibited the growth of P. intermedia 1/P and S. mutans ATCC 35668. However, enzyme-treated nCFS of B. licheniformis A-1-5B-AP did not lose its antimicrobial effect and significantly (p < 0.0001) inhibited the growth of Micrococcus luteus DSM 1790. Further studies are needed for the identification of antimicrobial substances