Vaginal Microbiome: Rethinking Health and Disease

Ma, Bing; Forney, Larry J.; Ravel, Jacques

doi:10.1146/annurev-micro-092611-150157

Cited by 599 publications

(533 citation statements)

References 124 publications

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“…The bacterial density reached 2+ to 4+ (≥ 10 per oil field), indicating that the vaginal flora was normal during RVVC. The diversity of the vaginal flora was typically single, is frequently dominated by Lactobacillus species (Ma et al, 2012), indicating that multi-flora are rarely present during RVVC. The Nugent score, sialidase, and the clue cells all are BV-specific and not relative to the infection of RVVC.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Case Report Dynamical evaluation of vaginal micro-ecosystem in a Chinese woman with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis

Hu¹,

Zhou²,

Yue³

et al. 2015

Genet. Mol. Res.

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ABSTRACT. We reported a rare case of recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) in this study. Through dynamic evaluation of the vaginal micro-ecosystem, we found that only depuratory degree, spores, blastospores, and hyphae were specific indicators and the "barometer" of RVVC development. Therefore, an understanding of vaginal microecological changes can help clinicians to improve the treatment of patients with RVVC.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Case Report Dynamical evaluation of vaginal micro-ecosystem in a Chinese woman with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis

Hu¹,

Zhou²,

Yue³

et al. 2015

Genet. Mol. Res.

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“…Though next-generation sequencing technology has profoundly expanded our appreciation of the bacterial microbiota within the human vagina 21 , these sophisticated methods have been applied to the study of the vaginal mycobiota to a far lesser degree. In fact, the very first next-generation sequencing-based survey of fungal communities within the vagina was published in 2013 by a group whose aim was to describe the bacterial and fungal communities of women in Estonia.…”

Section: Mycology Of the Vaginamentioning

confidence: 99%

The vaginal mycobiome: A contemporary perspective on fungi in women's health and diseases

2016

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Most of what is known about fungi in the human vagina has come from culture-based studies and phenotypic characterization of single organisms. Though valuable, these approaches have masked the complexity of fungal communities within the vagina. The vaginal mycobiome has become an emerging field of study as genomics tools are increasingly employed and we begin to appreciate the role these fungal communities play in human health and disease. Though vastly outnumbered by its bacterial counterparts, fungi are important constituents of the vaginal ecosystem in many healthy women. Candida albicans, an opportunistic fungal pathogen, colonizes 20% of women without causing any overt symptoms, yet it is one of the leading causes of infectious vaginitis. Understanding its mechanisms of commensalism and pathogenesis are both essential to developing more effective therapies. Describing the interactions between Candida, bacteria (such as Lactobacillus spp.) and other fungi in the vagina is fundamental to our characterization of the vaginal mycobiome.

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“…Most human vaginal tracts are predominantly colonized by Lactobacillus species (Srinivasan and Fredricks, 2008;Ma et al, 2012). Production of lactic acid by vaginal lactobacilli lowers the pH of the vaginal, creating an acidic (pHp4.5) environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Primate vaginal microbiomes exhibit species specificity without universal Lactobacillus dominance

et al. 2014

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Bacterial communities colonizing the reproductive tracts of primates (including humans) impact the health, survival and fitness of the host, and thereby the evolution of the host species. Despite their importance, we currently have a poor understanding of primate microbiomes. The composition and structure of microbial communities vary considerably depending on the host and environmental factors. We conducted comparative analyses of the primate vaginal microbiome using pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA genes of a phylogenetically broad range of primates to test for factors affecting the diversity of primate vaginal ecosystems. The nine primate species included: humans (Homo sapiens), yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus), olive baboons (Papio anubis), lemurs (Propithecus diadema), howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra), red colobus (Piliocolobus rufomitratus), vervets (Chlorocebus aethiops), mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Our results indicated that all primates exhibited host-specific vaginal microbiota and that humans were distinct from other primates in both microbiome composition and diversity. In contrast to the gut microbiome, the vaginal microbiome showed limited congruence with host phylogeny, and neither captivity nor diet elicited substantial effects on the vaginal microbiomes of primates. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance and Wilcoxon tests revealed correlations among vaginal microbiota and host species-specific socioecological factors, particularly related to sexuality, including: female promiscuity, baculum length, gestation time, mating group size and neonatal birth weight. The proportion of unclassified taxa observed in nonhuman primate samples increased with phylogenetic distance from humans, indicative of the existence of previously unrecognized microbial taxa. These findings contribute to our understanding of host-microbe variation and coevolution, microbial biogeography, and disease risk, and have important implications for the use of animal models in studies of human sexual and reproductive diseases.

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Vaginal Microbiome: Rethinking Health and Disease

Cited by 599 publications

References 124 publications

Case Report Dynamical evaluation of vaginal micro-ecosystem in a Chinese woman with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis

Case Report Dynamical evaluation of vaginal micro-ecosystem in a Chinese woman with recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis

The vaginal mycobiome: A contemporary perspective on fungi in women's health and diseases

Primate vaginal microbiomes exhibit species specificity without universal Lactobacillus dominance

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