Date of Award
2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Department
Cell & Molecular Biology
First Advisor
Steven Gregory
Abstract
The study of oral plaque has largely been influenced by the study of pathogens. Here in Chapter 1, I will discuss how this pathogenic focus has been dominant until the onset of microbiome research and begin to explain microbiomes in the context of supragingival plaque in homeostatic communities. From there we will then discuss the possible roots where dysbiosis may arise from plaque to cause disease and ways in which we can study healthy supragingival plaque by in vitro models.
In chapter 2, I will discuss molecular commensalism and how it can be viewed as a tool to further understand microbiome homeostasis. We will review the uniqueness of the oral microbiome bacterial interactions that may be of interest when studying oral health and disease. Here we will get a slight peek into how some oral biofilm models don’t reflects the environmental conditions that are required for studying healthy supragingival plaque, necessitating such a model.
In chapter 3, we describe the interactions of highly abundant organisms found in healthy supragingival plaque (C. matruchotii and S. mitis). However, these relationships were explored in in vitro coculture on agar plates and liquid media, and we wanted to validate these relationships in a polymicrobial model representative of their native habitat.
In Chapter 4, we explore the creation of an in vitro model capable of containing a high diversity of ex situ supragingival plaque. After successful creation of an in vitro supragingival plaque model, we were able to test phenotypic mechanisms discovered in chapter 3 showcasing the utility of our newly created model.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Labossiere, Alex, "“WHAT’S SUPP” DEVELOPING AN IN VITRO MODEL FOR HEALTHY ORAL BIOFILMS" (2025). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 4527.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/4527