Nitric Oxide, Oxidative Stress and Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus Bacterial Loads in Saliva during the Different Stages of Pregnancy: A Longitudinal Study

Madhu Wagle, Purusotam Basnet, Åse Vårtun and Ganesh Acharya
Additional contact information
Madhu Wagle: Women’s Health and Perinatology Research Group, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
Purusotam Basnet: Women’s Health and Perinatology Research Group, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
Åse Vårtun: Women’s Health and Perinatology Research Group, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway
Ganesh Acharya: Women’s Health and Perinatology Research Group, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT—The Arctic University of Norway, 9037 Tromsø, Norway

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 17, 1-12

Abstract: Hormonal changes associated with pregnancy promote oral bacterial growth, which may affect salivary nitric oxide (NO) levels, oxidative stress (OS), and antioxidant capacity (AC). We hypothesized that caries-related bacterial load, NO level, and OS in the saliva change with advancing gestation. The aim of this study was to investigate longitudinal changes in salivary NO, OS, and AC during pregnancy and correlate them with Streptococcus mutans ( SM ) and Lactobacillus ( LB ) colonization at different stages of pregnancy. We assessed NO level by Griess method, OS by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA), AC by ABTS radicals and bacterial load by culturing SM and LB in the saliva of pregnant women ( n = 96) and compared with non-pregnant women ( n = 50) as well as between different stages of pregnancy. Compared with non-pregnant women, NO was 77% higher (4.73 ± 2.87 vs. 2.67 ± 1.55 µM; p < 0.001), MDA was 13% higher (0.96 ± 0.27 vs. 0.85 ± 0.22 nM; p = 0.0055), and AC was 34% lower (60.35 ± 14.33 vs. 80.82 ± 11.60%; p < 0.001) in the late third trimester. NO increased with advancing gestation, but AC and OS did not change significantly during pregnancy. SM were more abundant in pregnant women compared with non-pregnant ( p = 0.0012). Pregnancy appears to have an adverse impact on oral health emphasizing the importance optimal oral healthcare during pregnancy.

Keywords: antioxidant capacity (AC); Lactobacillus; malondialdehyde (MDA); nitric oxide (NO); oral health; oxidative stress (OS); pregnancy; saliva; Streptococcus mutans (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/17/9330/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/17/9330/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:17:p:9330-:d:628714

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().