title: Clustering behavior in microbial communities from acute endodontic infections.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acute endodontic infections harbor heterogeneous microbial communities in both the root canal (RC) system and apical tissues. Data comparing the microbial structure and diversity in endodontic infections in related ecosystems, such as RC with necrotic pulp and acute apical abscess (AAA), are scarce in the literature. The aim of this study was to examine the presence of selected endodontic pathogens in paired samples from necrotic RC and AAA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by the construction of cluster profiles.
  
  
  METHODS
  Paired samples of RC and AAA exudates were collected from 20 subjects and analyzed by PCR for the presence of selected strict and facultative anaerobic strains. The frequency of species was compared between the RC and the AAA samples. A stringent neighboring clustering algorithm was applied to investigate the existence of similar high-order groups of samples. A dendrogram was constructed to show the arrangement of the sample groups produced by the hierarchical clustering.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All samples harbored bacterial DNA. Porphyromonas endodontalis, Prevotella nigrescens, Filifactor alocis, and Tannerela forsythia were frequently detected in both RC and AAA samples. The selected anaerobic species were distributed in diverse small bacteria consortia. The samples of RC and AAA that presented at least one of the targeted microorganisms were grouped in small clusters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anaerobic species were frequently detected in acute endodontic infections and heterogeneous microbial communities with low clustering behavior were observed in paired samples of RC and AAA.
authors.affiliation: Endodontics Division, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Montagner
authors.forename: Rogério C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Jacinto
authors.forename: Fernanda G C
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Signoretti
authors.forename: Paula F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Sanches
authors.forename: Brenda P F A
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Gomes
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000145:classification*; D016866:Bacteroidaceae Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D001439:Bacteroides / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001442:Bacteroides Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D003790:Dental Pulp Necrosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005673:Fusobacterium / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005674:Fusobacterium Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D016967:Fusobacterium nucleatum / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D059013:Microbial Consortia; D010482:Periapical Abscess / Q000382:microbiology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D045202:Porphyromonas endodontalis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016966:Porphyromonas gingivalis / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018720:Prevotella / Q000145:classification; D018713:Prevotella intermedia / Q000302:isolation & purification; D045242:Prevotella nigrescens / Q000302:isolation & purification