Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 6, 2022; 10(34): 12578-12586
Published online Dec 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i34.12578
Influence of group B streptococcus and vaginal cleanliness on the vaginal microbiome of pregnant women
Qi Liao, Xiao-Fen Zhang, Xin Mi, Feng Jin, Hong-Min Sun, Qing-Xuan Wang
Qi Liao, Xin Mi, Hong-Min Sun, Qing-Xuan Wang, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shunyi Maternal and Children’s Hospital of Beijing Children’s Hospital, Beijing 101300, China
Xiao-Fen Zhang, Feng Jin, Department of Genetics and Reproductive Medicine, Shunyi Maternal and Children’s Hospital of Beijing Children’s Hospital, Beijing 101300, China
Author contributions: Liao Q wrote the manuscript; Mi X designed the research study; Zhang XF performed the research and analyzed the data; Jin F and Sun HM contributed new reagents and analytic tools; Liao Q and Wang QX contributed to revise the manuscript; and all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Ethics Committee Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 2021-01).
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xin Mi, MD, Chief Physician, Doctor, Surgeon, Surgical Oncologist, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shunyi Maternal and Children’s Hospital of Beijing Children’s Hospital, No. 1 Shunkang Road, Shunyi District, Beijing 101300, China.mxyzgzr@126.com
Received: August 1, 2022
Peer-review started: August 1, 2022
First decision: August 21, 2022
Revised: September 1, 2022
Accepted: November 14, 2022
Article in press: November 14, 2022
Published online: December 6, 2022
Processing time: 123 Days and 2.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The vaginal microbiome plays a critical role in the health of pregnant women and their newborns. Group B Streptococcus (GBS) and vaginal cleanliness significantly affect the vaginal microecosystem and are closely associated with vaginal diseases.

AIM

To explore the effects of GBS status and vaginal cleanliness on vaginal microecosystems.

METHODS

We collected 160 vaginal swabs from pregnant women and divided them into the following four groups based on GBS status and vaginal cleanliness: GBS-positive + vaginal cleanliness I–II degree, GBS-negative + vaginal cleanliness I–II degree, GBS-positive + vaginal cleanliness III–IV degree, and GBS-negative + vaginal cleanliness III–IV degree. Samples were subjected to 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing.

RESULTS

Alpha diversity analysis showed that the Shannon index did not significantly differ between the four groups. We identified significant variation in taxa abundance between the GBS-positive and GBS-negative groups and between the vaginal cleanliness I–II degree and III–IV degree groups. Principal coordinate analysis and non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis further confirmed the microbial diversity of the four groups. Moreover, the linear discriminant analysis demonstrated that Lactobacillus jensenii and Actinobacteria were strongly associated with GBS-positive status, and Lactobacillus iners, Lactobacillaceae, Lactobacillus, Lactobacillales, Bacilli and Firmicutes were closely correlated with GBS-negative status.

CONCLUSION

GBS status and vaginal cleanliness significantly affect vaginal microbiome differences in pregnant women. Our findings provide instructional information for clinical antibiotic treatment in pregnant women with different GBS statuses and vaginal cleanliness degrees.

Keywords: Vaginal microbiome; Pregnant women; 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing; Group B Streptococcus; Vaginal cleanliness

Core Tip: To explore the correlation between Group B Streptococcus (GBS) status and vaginal cleanliness with the vaginal microbiome, we collected 160 vaginal swabs from pregnant women and the samples were subjected to 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We identified significant variation in taxa abundance between the GBS-positive and GBS-negative groups and between the vaginal cleanliness I–II degree and III–IV degree groups. Our findings provide new insights into understanding the vaginal microenvironment.