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The composition and stability of the vaginal microbiota of normal pregnant women is different from that of non-pregnant women
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: This study was undertaken to characterize the vaginal microbiota throughout normal human pregnancy using sequence-based techniques. We compared the vaginal microbial composition of non-pregnant patients with a group of pregnant women who delivered at term. RESULTS: A retrospective case-control longitudinal study was designed and included non-pregnant women (n = 32) and pregnant women who delivered at term (38 to 42 weeks) without complications (n = 22). Serial samples of vaginal fluid were collected from both non-pregnant and pregnant patients. A 16S rRNA gene sequence-based survey was conducted using pyrosequencing to characterize the structure and stability of the vaginal microbiota. Linear mixed effects models and generalized estimating equations were used to identify the phylotypes whose relative abundance was different between the two study groups. The vaginal microbiota of normal pregnant women was different from that of non-pregnant women (higher abundance of Lactobacillus vaginalis, L. crispatus, L. gasseri and L. jensenii and lower abundance of 22 other phylotypes in pregnant women). Bacterial community state type (CST) IV-B or CST IV-A characterized by high relative abundance of species of genus Atopobium as well as the presence of Prevotella, Sneathia, Gardnerella, Ruminococcaceae, Parvimonas, Mobiluncus and other taxa previously shown to be associated with bacterial vaginosis were less frequent in normal pregnancy. The stability of the vaginal microbiota of pregnant women was higher than that of non-pregnant women; however, during normal pregnancy, bacterial communities shift almost exclusively from one CST dominated by Lactobacillus spp. to another CST dominated by Lactobacillus spp. CONCLUSION: We report the first longitudinal study of the vaginal microbiota in normal pregnancy. Differences in the composition and stability of the microbial community between pregnant and non-pregnant women were observed. Lactobacillus spp. were the predominant members of the microbial community in normal pregnancy. These results can serve as the basis to study the relationship between the vaginal microbiome and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
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“Five major subcategories of cervicovaginal bacterial species were identified and defined as Community State Types (CSTs).”
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“Among the four groups, there was a high prevalence of lactobacilli. In particular, L. crispatus prevailed in CST I, L. gasseri in CST II, L. iners in CST III, and L. jensenii in CST V. In the remaining Community state type (CST IV) predominate anaerobic bacteria, such G. vaginalis , Atopobium vaginae , and Megasphaera spp., similar to the vaginal microbiota in bacterial vaginosis [27, 28].”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Romero, R., Hassan, S. S., Gajer, P., Tarca, A. L., Fadrosh, D. W., Nikita, L., Galuppi, M., Lamont, R. F., Chaemsaithong, P., Miranda, J., Chaiworapongsa, T., & Ravel, J.
- Affiliations
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- Corresponding author
- Romero, Roberto
- Ravel, Jacques
- ORCID
- Venue
- Microbiome
- Published
- 2014-02-03
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 10-10
- ISSN
- 2049-2618 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3916806
- OpenAlex
- W2100318919
- Cited by
- 852
- References
- 280
- Citations by year
- 2026: 34 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 77 · 2023: 85 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 106 · 2020: 94 · 2019: 104 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 66 · 2016: 49 · 2015: 43 · 2014: 23
- FWCI
- 49.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- erratum (2014-04-15)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Microbiome (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Southern Denmark Research Portal (University of Southern Denmark) (publishedVersion)
- Human Biology (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Wayne State University
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Microbiology › Reproductive tract infections research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Health Sciences › Dentistry › Periodontics › Oral microbiology and periodontitis research
- Keywords
- vaginal microbiota, pregnancy, Lactobacillus, microbiome stability, bacterial vaginosis, Atopobium, Gardnerella, term birth
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