Alteration of vaginal microbiota in patients with unexplained recurrent miscarriage

Zhang,Feng; Zhang,Tao; Ma,Yingying; Huang,Zhangqian; He,Yao; Pan,Haitao; Fang,Min; Ding,Haigang

doi:10.3892/etm.2019.7337

Alteration of vaginal microbiota in patients with unexplained recurrent miscarriage

Authors:
- Feng Zhang
- Tao Zhang
- Yingying Ma
- Zhangqian Huang
- Yao He
- Haitao Pan
- Min Fang
- Haigang Ding
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Affiliations: Department of Gynecology, Shaoxing Women and Children's Hospital, Shaoxing, Zhejiang 312000, P.R. China, Genetic Laboratory, Shaoxing Women and Children's Hospital, Shaoxing, Zhejiang 312000, P.R. China, Reproductive Center, Shaoxing Women and Children's Hospital, Shaoxing, Zhejiang 312000, P.R. China
Published online on: March 4, 2019 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2019.7337
Pages: 3307-3316
Copyright: © Zhang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

The way in which a balanced vaginal microbiome helps prevent gynecological diseases in women and maintain health remains to be fully elucidated. In the present study, the potential effect of aberrations in the vaginal flora on unexplained recurrent miscarriage (RM) was investigated. The vaginal bacterial communities of 10 patients with unexplained RM and 10 healthy volunteers were sampled and subjected to sequencing analysis of the V3‑V4 regions of the bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA gene using the Illumina MiSeq platform. Beta diversity analysis/principal component analysis indicated that bacterial community structures were different between the RM and control groups. A lower microbiota diversity in samples from RM patients was revealed by alpha diversity estimation. Taxonomic analysis demonstrated that abundance of three types of phyla (Firmicutes, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes) was significantly different between the RM and the normal control group. Furthermore, at the genus level, Lactobacillus was the most dominant genus in the two groups. Statistically significant differences were observed in 5 genera between the two groups. In the RM group, 3 bacterial taxa (Atopobium, Prevotella and Streptococcus) were significantly more abundant, while only 2 taxa were overrepresented in the control group (Lactobacillus and Gardnerella). In conclusion, the present results provide experimental evidence supporting dysbiosis of the vaginal flora in women with RM.

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