Microbial profile of supragingival and subgingival plaque of patients with glycogen storage disease

Patients with glycogen storage disease (GSD) are either orally fed (ORF) or gastronomy-tube fed (GTF) with cornstarch to maintain normal glucose levels. It is not known whether the use of cornstarch affects the microbiological oral profile of patients with GSD. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare supragingival and subgingival plaque samples collected from 53 participants with GSD (2-56 years)—29 ORF and 24 GTF. The 16S sequence bacterial profiles of plaque DNA were obtained and a total of 768 probes were detected across the plaque groups. Orally fed patients showed higher means of cariogenic species and periodontal health-associated species, whereas GTF patients showed higher means of periopathogenic species (P < .05). Orally fed patients exhibited high levels of caries pathogens and lower levels of periodontal pathogens possibly due to the acidic environment created by their cornstarch diet, when compared to GTF patients.