LGR5 and liver cancer: Considering the direct connection between the oral and gastrointestinal tracts and the extent to which disturbances in the oral microbiome affect the gut microbiome and subsequently gut stem cells, such as Lgr5, contributing to the systemic disease (e.g. liver cancer) development, remains unresolved (Barker and Clevers, 2007; Han et al., 2021; He et al., 2023), investigating the interaction between these microbiotas is of significant relevance (Uchiyama et al., 2019).