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Cited by 119Reproductive tract infections researchGut microbiota and healthProbiotics and Fermented Foods

Identification and genotyping of bacteria from paired vaginal and rectal samples from pregnant women indicates similarity between vaginal and rectal microflora

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El Aila, Nabil Abdullah, Tency, Inge, Claeys, Geert, Verstraelen, Hans, Saerens, Bart, Lopes dos Santos Santiago, Guido, De Backer, Ellen, Cools, Piet +3 more·2009·BMC Infectious Diseases
DOI 10.1186/1471-2334-9-167PMC PMC2770471
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Abstract

Background: The vaginal microflora is important for maintaining vaginal health and preventing infections of the reproductive tract. The rectum has been suggested as the major source for the colonisation of the vaginal econiche. Methods: To establish whether the rectum can serve as a possible bacterial reservoir for colonisation of the vaginal econiche, we cultured vaginal and rectal specimens from pregnant women at 35-37 weeks of gestation, identified the isolates to the species level with tRNA intergenic length polymorphism analysis (tDNA-PCR) and genotyped the isolates for those subjects from which the same species was isolated simultaneously vaginally and rectally, by RAPD-analysis. One vaginal and one rectal swab were collected from a total of each of 132 pregnant women at 35-37 weeks of gestation. Swabs were cultured on Columbia CNA agar and MRS agar. For each subject 4 colonies were selected for each of both sites, i.e. 8 colonies in total. Results: Among the 844 isolates that could be identified by tDNA-PCR, a total of 63 bacterial species were present, 9 (14%) only vaginally, 26 (41%) only rectally, and 28 (44%) in both vagina and rectum. A total of 121 (91.6%) of 132 vaginal samples and 51 (38.6%) of 132 rectal samples were positive for lactobacilli. L. crispatus was the most frequently isolated Lactobacillus species from the vagina (40% of the subjects were positive), followed by L. jensenii (32%), L. gasseri (30%) and L. iners (11%). L. gasseri was the most frequently isolated Lactobacillus species from the rectum (15%), followed by L. jensenii (12%), L. crispatus (11%) and L. iners (2%). A total of 47 pregnant women carried the same species vaginally and rectally. This resulted in 50 vaginal/rectal pairs of the same species, for a total of eight different species. For 34 of the 50 species pairs (68%), isolates with the same genotype were present vaginally and rectally and a high level of genotypic diversity within species per subject was also established. Conclusion: It can be concluded that there is a certain degree of correspondence between the vaginal and rectal microflora, not only with regard to species composition but also with regard to strain identity between vaginal and rectal isolates. These results support the hypothesis that the rectal microflora serves as a reservoir for colonisation of the vaginal econiche.

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  • Direct bacterial translocation from the gut to the vagina has been previously observed.

    “Direct bacterial translocation from the gut to the vagina has been previously observed [56].”

    From Women's health is a team effort: probiogenomics supports the development of a multi-species vaginal probiotic (2026) · cites this paper as [56]

    The Results report identical bacterial genotypes in paired vaginal and rectal samples from pregnant women, supporting a possible connection between the two sites. But the Conclusion says bacteria could move in either direction, and the Discussion notes that the women were not sampled over time. The study therefore did not directly observe gut-to-vagina translocation. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Mitsuoka T Vergleichende Untersuchungen über die Laktobazillen aus den Faeces von Menschen, Schweinen, und Hühnern Zentralbl Bakteriol Parasitenkde Infektionskrankh Hyg Abt 1 Orig 1969 210 32 51 4982872

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Authors
El Aila, N. A., Tency, I., Claeys, G., Verstraelen, H., Saerens, B., Lopes dos Santos Santiago, G., De Backer, E., Cools, P., Temmerman, M., Verhelst, R., & Vaneechoutte, M.
Affiliations
  • Ghent University Hospital (BE)
  • Ghent University (BE)
Corresponding author
Vaneechoutte, Mario
ORCID
Venue
BMC Infectious Diseases
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2009-10-14
Volume
9
Issue
1
Pages
167-167
ISSN
1471-2334 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/1471-2334-9-167
PMC
PMC2770471
OpenAlex
W1989704399
Cited by
119
References
52
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 8
FWCI
7.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • BMC Infectious Diseases (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • eCommons - AKU (Aga Khan University) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Microbiology › Reproductive tract infections research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
Keywords
vaginal microbiota, rectal microbiota, bacterial reservoir, Lactobacillus, Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus jensenii, Lactobacillus crispatus, Lactobacillus iners, bacterial genotyping, RAPD, pregnancy, bacterial colonization, genotypic diversity
MeSH terms
DNA, Bacterial, Female, Genotype, Humans, Lactobacillus, Pregnancy, Rectum, RNA, Transfer, Vagina, Bacterial Typing Techniques, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique

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