Bacteria from subperiosteal abscesses of the orofacial region that produce viscous material

Abstract

We examined the production of viscous material using clinical strains isolated from severe odontogenic infections. Bacteria were isolated for all cases, and the average number ofisolates was 2.1×10^7CFU/mL. Although anaerobes predominated in all cases, the viscous material producers were, for the most part, from the facultatives. All cases contained bacteria thatproduced viscous material, the most prominent being Peptostreptococcus sp. (26%), Prevotella intermedia/nigrescens (18%), Streptococcus oralis (16%) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (8%).S. oralis in particular was more viscous than the other species, with an average viscosity of 3.32 mPa・s. S. oralis produced a viscous extracellular material that appeared under electron mi-croscopy to have fibrous-like structures. These results indicate that strong viscous material from bacteria such as S. oralis may be important in biofilm production and in the exacerbation of odontogenic infections.