Bacteriology and Infectious Diseases

Biography

Biography: George L. Mendz

Abstract

Background: There is limited knowledge of the community structure of the vaginal microbiome of pregnant women. This work aimed to provide a more complete description the vaginal microbiome of pregnant women in late pregnancy, and to investigate differences between the microbiota of healthy gravidae women and those who experienced complications during pregnancy, in particular women giving birth at term or preterm. rnMethods: Upper vagina swabs were obtained from 225 women of Caucasian, Asian, Indian, Middle East, and Pacific Island racial backgrounds during the third trimester of pregnancy. Participating women were administered a questionnaire including demographic data and summarising the history of the pregnancy; 132 women of five ethnic backgrounds had no complications during the pregnancy. The identity of the taxa present was determined by ultrafast sequencing of the V1V3 regions of the 16S rDNA gene of DNA extracted from the swabs. The sequence data were analysed with MOTHUR and statistical analyses were performed employing various bioinformatics tools.rnResults and Discussion: The relative abundance of some phyla was different in pregnant and non-pregnant (from other studies) women. Multidimensional scaling analyses showed the bacterial populations of women without complications to cluster in four vaginotypes driven by four Lactobacillus species. This organisation was partially dependent on the racial background of the woman and was altered by complications during pregnancy. A CLUSTER analysis showed a fine structure in these vaginotypes created by taxa belonging to the genera Escherichia, Atopobium and Prevotella. The participants were stratified into two groups: with or without complications during pregnancy. Using univariate analysis, 9 genera were found significantly correlated with genital infections. PERMANOVA analyses yielded significant differences between the microbiomes of both groups