Stony Brook University, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Medicine, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
Stony Brook University, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Medicine, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
J Sex Med. 2022 Sep;19(9):1451-1462. doi: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2022.06.014. Epub 2022 Jul 20.
Recent studies of the vaginal microbiome have led to a better understanding of the microbiota and interactions with the host environment, however the role of the vaginal microbiome in vestibulodynia remains unclear.
This study aims to investigate and examine differences in the bacterial and fungal microbiome among patients with vestibulodynia and healthy controls.
A case-control study was conducted examining the vaginal microbiome of 29 patients with vestibulodynia and 26 controls through Stony Brook University Obstetrics and Gynecology ambulatory clinic. Exclusion criteria included a diagnosis of vaginal infection at the time of presentation, a prior diagnosis of vulvodynia or receipt of treatment, immunosuppression, and receipt of steroid or antibiotic therapy. Vaginal swab samples were obtained from participants. DNA was extracted and sent for diversity assay of 16S rRNA for prokaryotic species and internal transcribed spacers (ITS) for fungi. Demographic characteristics for both cases and controls were obtained through a retrospective chart review.
Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis effect size (LefSe) were used to identify differences in relative abundance of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for the vaginal microbiome between vestibulodynia patients and controls.
Lactobacillus species were dominant amongst both cases and controls. PCA of 16S and ITS OTUs did not show significant differences in microbiome composition between vestibulodynia patients and controls. LefSe demonstrated higher abundance of Bifidobacterium longum, the Genus Sneathia, and the Family Leptotrichiaceae, in controls compared to vestibulodynia samples. For ITS, Aspergillus spp. was significantly more prevalent in controls than in vestibulodynia cases.
Additional studies are needed to further assess the clinical significance of these findings.
Strengths of this study include ITS amplicon sequence analysis for fungal species diversity. Limitations of this study include small sample size and lack of racial diversity.
Our study did not find significant differences in composition or diversity between the vaginal microbiomes of cases of vestibulodynia and controls; however, the data suggests differences in abundance of biota requiring further research for biological and clinical significance. Panzarella DA, Peresleni T, Collier JL, et al. Vestibulodynia and the Vaginal Microbiome: A Case-Control Study. J Sex Med 2022;19:1451-1462.
最近对阴道微生物组的研究使人们更好地了解了微生物群及其与宿主环境的相互作用，但阴道微生物组在阴部疼痛中的作用仍不清楚。
本研究旨在调查和研究阴部疼痛患者与健康对照组之间阴道细菌和真菌微生物组的差异。
通过 Stony Brook 大学妇产科门诊进行病例对照研究，检查 29 名阴部疼痛患者和 26 名对照者的阴道微生物组。排除标准包括就诊时患有阴道感染、先前诊断为外阴痛或接受治疗、免疫抑制以及接受类固醇或抗生素治疗。从参与者中获取阴道拭子样本。提取 DNA 并进行多样性测定 16S rRNA 用于原核物种和内部转录间隔区 (ITS) 用于真菌。通过回顾性图表审查获得病例和对照组的人口统计学特征。
乳杆菌属在病例和对照组中均占优势。16S 和 ITS OTUs 的主成分分析 (PCA) 和线性判别分析效应量 (LefSe) 并未显示阴部疼痛患者和对照组之间阴道微生物组组成的显着差异。LefSe 显示，与阴部疼痛样本相比，对照组中双歧杆菌属、Sneathia 属和 Leptotrichiaceae 家族的丰度更高。对于 ITS，与阴部疼痛病例相比，对照组中曲霉菌属更为普遍。
需要进一步研究来进一步评估这些发现的临床意义。
本研究的优势包括 ITS 扩增子序列分析用于真菌物种多样性。本研究的局限性包括样本量小和缺乏种族多样性。
我们的研究没有发现阴部疼痛病例和对照组阴道微生物组组成或多样性存在显着差异；然而，数据表明生物群的丰度存在差异，需要进一步研究以确定其生物学和临床意义。Panzarella DA、Peresleni T、Collier JL 等人。阴部疼痛与阴道微生物组：病例对照研究。J 性医学 2022；19：1451-1462。
