REVIEW article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Extra-intestinal Microbiome
This article is part of the Research TopicPerspectives in Extra-Intestinal Microbiome 2025View all articles
Oral microbiota in cardiovascular health and disease
Provisionally accepted- Stomatology Hospital, School of Stomatology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China, hangzhou, China
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Hundreds of microbial species inhabit the oral cavity and are essential to local and systemic health. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) causes a significant burden on global health, with its etiology and pathogenesis still not fully understood. Growing evidence indicates an association between the oral microbiome and CVD. However, the variability of populations, follow-up durations, and disease severity between various human investigations led to divergent conclusions. Animal studies have focused on the relationship between individual microbial species and CVD, yet gaps remain in the mechanisms between CVD and microbiome. In addition, a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between oral pathogens and the cardiovascular system has not been elucidated. In this Review, we summarize our current knowledge of basic and clinical research on potential mechanisms linking the oral microbiome to CVD and highlight the need for population-based studies with controlled baselines to establish mechanism links between oral microbial pathways and CVD.
Keywords: cardiovascular disease, Inflammtion, oral microbiome, oral-heart axis, Periodontal health
Received: 24 Oct 2025; Accepted: 01 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Chen and Duan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shengzhong Duan
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