The Research Institute of Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya, Israel.
J Low Genit Tract Dis. 2022 Oct 1;26(4):339-344. doi: 10.1097/LGT.0000000000000689. Epub 2022 Aug 6.
The etiology of localized provoked vulvodynia (LPV) remains unknown, but observations suggest the involvement of the vaginal microbiota. We examined the vaginal microbiota of women with LPV and healthy controls, upon after a low-oxalate diet (LOD).
A total of 9 women diagnosed with secondary LPV and 21 healthy controls were recruited from the Galilee Medical Center in Israel and subjected to prospective evaluations of their vaginal microbiota. Total DNA was extracted from vaginal discharge samples provided before and after following LOD for 3 weeks and was then subjected to 16S sequencing. Data obtained were then used to evaluate α and β diversity, identify differentially abundant bacterial taxa in LPV, and determine their impact on the metabolism.
These evaluations revealed decreased diversity in the vaginal microbiota of women with LPV and identified the Ochrobactrum genus and Pseudomonadaceae family as indicators for LPV. In addition, we identified 23 differentially expressed bacterial metabolic pathways between the LPV and control samples and revealed that LOD could induce changes in the β diversity of LPV vaginal microbiomes, which was further supported by some degree of pain reduction in patients.
Localized provoked vulvodynia and LOD were associated with shifts in the vaginal microbiota. However, the impact of these changes on the development of LPV requires additional studies with a larger cohort.
局限性激惹性外阴痛（LPV）的病因尚不清楚，但观察结果表明其与阴道微生物群有关。我们研究了 LPV 女性和健康对照组女性在接受低草酸盐饮食（LOD）前后的阴道微生物群。
从以色列加利利医疗中心招募了 9 名被诊断为继发性 LPV 的女性和 21 名健康对照组，并对她们的阴道微生物群进行前瞻性评估。从阴道分泌物样本中提取总 DNA，这些样本在遵循 LOD 进行 3 周前后提供，并进行 16S 测序。然后使用获得的数据评估 α 和 β 多样性，识别 LPV 中丰度差异的细菌分类群，并确定它们对代谢的影响。
这些评估结果显示，LPV 女性的阴道微生物群多样性降低，并确定 Ochrobactrum 属和 Pseudomonadaceae 科是 LPV 的指标。此外，我们在 LPV 和对照样本之间确定了 23 个差异表达的细菌代谢途径，并发现 LOD 可以诱导 LPV 阴道微生物组的β多样性发生变化，这在一定程度上也得到了患者疼痛减轻的支持。
局限性激惹性外阴痛和 LOD 与阴道微生物群的变化有关。然而，这些变化对 LPV 发展的影响需要更大队列的进一步研究。
