Imbalance of Vaginal Microbiota and Immunity: Two Main Accomplices of Cervical Cancer in Chinese Women.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the correlation of female vaginal microbiota and immune factors with cervical cancer.

METHODS

The distribution pattern difference of vaginal microbiota of four groups of women (cervical cancer, HPV-positive CIN, HPV-positive non-CIN, and HPV-negative groups) were compared by microbial 16S rDNA sequencing. The protein chip was used to detect the composition and changes of the immune factors in the four groups.

RESULTS

Alpha diversity analysis demonstrated that the diversity of the vaginal microbiota was increased as the disease develops. Among those bacteria abundant in the vaginal microbiota, , and dominate at the genus level of vaginal flora. Compared with the HPV-negative group, the differentially dominant bacteria, such as and , are enriched in the cervical cancer group. Likewise, , and are more in the HPV-positive CIN group, while and in the HPV-positive non-CIN group, respectively. In contrast, and are dominant in the HPV-negative group (LDA>4log10). The concentration of inflammatory immune factors IP-10 and VEGF-A were increased in the cervical cancer group ( < 0.05), compared with other groups.

CONCLUSION

The occurrence of cervical cancer is related to an increase of vaginal microbiota diversity and up-regulation of inflammatory immune factor proteins. The abundance of was decreased while the one of and were increased in the cervical cancer group, compared with other three groups. Moreover, the IP-10 and VEGF-A were also increased in the cervical cancer group. Thus, evaluation of changes in the vaginal microbiota and these two immune factor levels might be a potential non-invasive and simple method to predict cervical cancer. Furthermore, it is significant to adjust and restore the balance of vaginal microbiota and maintain normal immune function in preventing and treating cervical cancer.