Oral Infections, Metabolic Inflammation, Genetics, and Cardiometabolic Diseases

Although several epidemiologic studies reported plausible and potentially causal associations between oral infections and cardiometabolic diseases (CMDs), controversy still lingers. This might be due to unrecognized confounding from metabolic inflammation and genetics, both of which alter the immune responses of the host. Low-grade inflammation termed metainflammation is the hallmark of obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and CMDs. According to the common soil theory, the continuum of obesity to CMDs is the same pathology at different time points, and early metainflammations, such as hyperglycemia and obesity, display many adverse cardiometabolic characteristics. Consequently, adipose tissue is now considered a dynamic endocrine organ that expresses many proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, and IL-1β. In metainflammation, IL-1β and reactive oxygen species are generated, and IL-1β is a pivotal molecule in the pathogenesis of CMDs. Note that the same cy...