PorphyRomonas gingivalis assOciated inflammation on female reproduCTIVE tissues (PRODUCTIVE)

Oral health in an integral part of the systemic well-being, supporting and enabling essential human function. Despite being largely preventable, periodontitis, the most serious gum disease, is a global public health non-communicable condition affecting half of the adult population worldwide and is epidemiologically associated with other chronic inflammation-driven disorders. Emerging evidence has shown periodontitis as a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes, yet it is not understood how is causally linked to gynecological and obstetric complications. PRODUCTIVE will provide the most comprehensive snapshot of the impact of periodontitis associated inflammation burden for the female reproductive health and will pave the way for new areas of research in mechanisms linking periodontitis with female infertility.
This project will rely on the Animal Facilities of FFUL,and will be conducted according to the General Directorate of Food and Veterinary Medicine (DGAV) after formal ethical approval by the Animal Welfare and Ethics Body (ORBEA). We will enroll 2 research groups: rats will be randomly allocated in an experimental group to induce periodontitis and rats will be allocated in a control group without periodontitis induction. After mating, the pregnancy rate will be computed in all stages. The non-pregnant rats (with and without periodontitis) will be sacrificed, and reproductive female tissues and blood will be collected for inflammatory analysis. The pregnant rats (with and without periodontitis) will be sacrificed a few days postpartum, and in addition to the previous analysis, we will collect breast milk to quantify inflammatory levels. Considering the multidimensional nature of the gathered and obtained data, a multivariate analysis approach will be performed.