Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States of America.
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
PLoS One. 2023 Nov 29;18(11):e0284709. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0284709. eCollection 2023.
The gut microbiota in patients with inflammatory bowel disease are perturbed in both composition and function. The vaginal microbiome and its role in the reproductive health of women with inflammatory bowel disease is less well described.
We aim to compare the vaginal microbiota of women with inflammatory bowel disease to healthy controls.
Women with inflammatory bowel disease enrolled in a longitudinal cohort study provided self-collected vaginal swabs. Healthy controls underwent provider-collected vaginal swabs at routine gynecologic exams. All participants completed surveys on health history, vulvovaginal symptoms and gastrointestinal symptoms, if applicable. Microbiota were characterized by sequencing the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Associations between patient characteristics and microbial community composition were evaluated by PERMANOVA and Principal Components Analysis. Lactobacillus dominance of the microbial community was compared between groups using chi-square and Poisson regression.
The cohort included 54 women with inflammatory bowel disease (25 Ulcerative colitis, 25 Crohn's Disease) and 26 controls. A majority, 72 (90%) were White; 17 (31%) with inflammatory bowel disease and 7 (27%) controls were postmenopausal. The composition of the vaginal microbiota did not vary significantly by diagnosis or severity of inflammatory bowel disease but did vary by menopausal status (p = 0.042). There were no significant differences in Shannon Diversity Index between healthy controls and women with IBD in premenopausal participants. There was no difference in proportion of Lactobacillus dominance according to diagnosis in premenopausal participants. A subgroup of postmenopausal women with Ulcerative colitis showed a significant higher alpha diversity and a lack of Lactobacillus dominance in the vaginal microbiome.
Menopausal status had a larger impact on vaginal microbial communities than inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis or severity.
炎症性肠病患者的肠道微生物群在组成和功能上都受到了干扰。阴道微生物组及其在炎症性肠病女性生殖健康中的作用还不太清楚。
我们旨在比较炎症性肠病女性与健康对照组的阴道微生物群。
纳入一项纵向队列研究的炎症性肠病女性患者提供了自我采集的阴道拭子。健康对照组在常规妇科检查时进行了医生采集的阴道拭子。所有参与者都完成了关于健康史、外阴阴道症状和胃肠道症状（如果有）的调查。通过测序 16S rRNA 基因的 V4 区来描述微生物群。通过 PERMANOVA 和主成分分析评估患者特征与微生物群落组成之间的关联。使用卡方检验和泊松回归比较两组之间微生物群落中乳杆菌的优势度。
该队列包括 54 名炎症性肠病女性（25 名溃疡性结肠炎，25 名克罗恩病）和 26 名对照组。大多数（90%）是白人；17 名（31%）炎症性肠病患者和 7 名（27%）对照组处于绝经后状态。阴道微生物群的组成与诊断或炎症性肠病的严重程度没有显著差异，但与绝经状态显著相关（p = 0.042）。在绝经前参与者中，健康对照组和炎症性肠病女性的 Shannon 多样性指数没有显著差异。在绝经前参与者中，根据诊断，乳杆菌优势度的比例没有差异。溃疡性结肠炎的绝经后女性亚组表现出明显更高的 alpha 多样性和阴道微生物群中缺乏乳杆菌优势度。
绝经状态对阴道微生物群落的影响大于炎症性肠病的诊断或严重程度。
