Abundance of veillonella spp. does not reflect salivary nitrite production after nitrate ingestion

Abstract

Veillonella spp. have been reported to be the most prevalent nitrate-reducing bacterial species in the oral cavity. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the abundance of Veillonella spp. and nitrite production after nitrate ingestion. Bacterial samples were obtained from the tongue surfaces of 50 university students. The predominant Veillonella spp., V. atypica, V. dispar, and V. rogosae were identified and enumerated using real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Salivary nitrate and nitrite were measured before and 30, 60, and 90 min after ingestion of 100 ml of beetroot juice. Increased nitrite concentrations were observed in all participants, with a mean increase of 0.61 (0.42-1.10) mM expressed as the median (interquartile range). Veillonella atypica was detected in 40 subjects (80%), V. dispar in 48 (96%), and V. rogosae in 48 (96%), at quantities ranging from 1.3 × 102 to 2.8 × 107 CFU/ml per subject. The strengths of the correlations of the log colony forming unit (CFU) values of V. atypica, V. dispar, V. rogosae, and the log CFU value of the three species together with the increase in nitrite levels were 0.091, 0.114, -0.228, and 0.060, respectively, none of which were significant (p > 0.05). Our results indicate that the abundance of Veillonella spp. is not related to salivary nitrite production after nitrate ingestion. c 2020, The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology.