Identification of Dialister pneumosintes in Acute Periradicular Abscesses of Humans by Nested PCR

Abstract Species-specific nested PCR was used to detect Dialister pneumosintes in pus samples from acute periradicular abscesses of humans. Pus was collected by aspiration from 18 cases diagnosed as acute abscesses of endodontic origin and DNA extracted from samples was initially amplified using universal 16S rDNA primers. A second round of amplification used the first PCR products to detect a specific fragment of D. pneumosintes 16S rDNA. D. pneumosintes was detected in 12 of the cases diagnosed as acute periradicular abscesses (66.7%). This is probably the hitherto first detection of this bacterial species in acute abscesses of endodontic origin in humans or, at least, this is certainly the first study to report a high prevalence of this bacterial species in cases of acute periradicular abscesses. The specific role played by D. pneumosintes in these abscesses needs to be clarified. However, its high prevalence as detected in the present study suggests that D. pneumosintes may participate in the pathogenesis of acute periradicular abscesses.