Characterization of lingual microbiota in pediatric geographic tongue.

Background: Geographic tongue is an oral mucosal lesion affecting the tongue. The association between geographic tongue and the mucosal microbiota in children remains unclear.

Method: To characterize the feature of lingual microbiota in pediatric geographic tongue, lingual swabs were collected from lesion sites and healthy sites of 25 patients with geographic tongue (14 males and 11 females; age 5.21 ±2.94 years) and 19 controls (10 males and 9 females; age 5.31±2.82 years). DNA was extracted and the 16S rRNA was amplificated, sequenced and analyzed.

Results: The lingual microbiota composition was significantly different between children with geographic tongue and the healthy cohort; Streptobacillus was reduced in geographic tongue, while Catonella, Bacillus and Oribacterium were overrepresented. When the lesions and the normal mucosa were compared, an increased abundance of Prevotella oris was observed.

Conclusion: Our results provided new insight into the association between oral microbiota and pediatric geographic tongue.