ORCID

0000-0002-8737-0711 (Johnson)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.3748/wjg.v31.i38.111210

Publication Title

World Journal of Gastroenterology

Volume

31

Issue

38

Pages

111210

Abstract

The oral microbiome is the second largest microbial community in the human body after the gut microbiome. It includes an array of fungi, bacteria, amoebae, flagellates, archaea, and viruses, all of which are potential pathogens. This microbiome can act as a facilitator not only for protection but also for aggravation when dysbiosis occurs. Although conventional thought is this is primarily in terms of oral health issues, such as dental caries and gingival disease. The systemic effects of the oral microbiome however, are relevant to both gastrointestinal (GI) disease and non-GI disease. These systemic risks occur for several reasons, including upregulation of cytokines, adhesion cell-like processes, toll-like receptors, reactive oxidative species or generation of mutation inducing DNA changes. Additionally, there is translocation risk of potential active pathogens or their metabolic byproducts. There is a substantial and growing body of evidence that the oral microbiome influences diseases including Barrett’s esophagus, metabolic-associated steatosis liver disease, and GI cancers. Additionally, there is burgeoning evidence of a causal association with systemic inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease. This report discusses the most recent evidence of this association and highlights new approaches to potentially enhance our “best practice” strategies for optimal care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Rights

© 2025 The Authors.

This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial.

Original Publication Citation

Saadeh, M., Donohue, S., Ailawadi, S., Hong, G., & Johnson, D. A. (2025). Oral microbiome and inflammatory bowel disease: New understanding and call to action. World Journal of Gastroenterology, 31(38), Article 111210. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v31.i38.111210

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