Characteristics of Vaginal Microbiome in Women with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease in Korea

Study information

Needs review

study design

case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

34584529

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

https://doi.org/10.33073/pjm-2021-033

URI Uniform resource identifier for web resources.

Authors

Kim S, Seo H, Rahim MA, Tajdozian H, Kim YS, Song HY

Journal

Polish journal of microbiology

Year

2021

Keywords:

16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, Korean, pelvic inflammatory disease, premenopausal, vaginal microflora

Human vaginal microorganisms play an important role in maintaining good health throughout the human life cycle. An imbalance in the vaginal microbiota is associated with an increased risk of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). This study aimed to characterize and compare vaginal microbial profiles of premenopausal Korean women with and without PID. 74 Korean premenopausal female vaginal samples were obtained; 33 were from healthy women (a control group) and 41 from PID patients. Vaginal fluid samples were collected from the vaginal wall and posterior cervix and then analyzed by 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene-based amplicon sequencing. Results showed a significant difference between the vaginal microbial communities of the two groups (Jensen-Shannon, p = 0.014; Bray-Curtis, p = 0.009; Generalized UniFrac, p = 0.007; UniFrac, p = 0.008). Lactobacillus accounted for the highest percentage (61.0%) of the control group but was significantly decreased (34.9%) in PID patients; this was the most significant difference among all bacterial communities (p = 0.028, LDA effect size = 5.129). In addition, in the PID patient group, species diversity significantly increased (Simpson, p = 0.07) as the proportion of various pathogens increased evenly, resulting in a polymicrobial infection. Similarly, lactate, which constituted the highest percentage of the organic acids in the control group, was significantly decreased in the PID patient group (p = 0.04). The present study's findings will help understand PID from the microbiome perspective and are expected to contribute to the development of more efficient PID diagnosis and treatment modalities.

Experiment 1

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Curated date: 2025/06/24

Curator: Aleru Divine

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine

Subjects

Location of subjects: South Korea

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Vagina Distal oviductal region,Distal portion of oviduct,Vaginae,Vagina,vagina

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Pelvic Inflammatory Disease disease (PID), pelvic inflammatory,inflammatory disease (PID), pelvic,pelvic infection,pelvic inflammatory disease,pelvic inflammatory disease, (PID),PID,PID, pelvic inflammatory disease,Pelvic Inflammatory Disease,pelvic Inflammatory Disease

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Control group

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) group

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Vaginal samples from premenopausal women with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID).

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 33

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 41

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: LEfSe

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No

LDA Score above Threshold for the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) score for studies using the popular LEfSe tool: 2.5

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: unchanged

Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness: unchanged

Simpson Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species evenness: decreased

Richness Number of species: unchanged

Faith Phylogenetic diversity, takes into account phylogenetic distance of all taxa identified in a sample: unchanged

Signature 1

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Curated date: 2025/06/24

Curator: Aleru Divine

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine

Source: Table 4

Description: The Kruskal-Wallis H tests and LEfSe analysis of the associations between normal control women and PID patients.

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) group

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Pseudomonadaceae
Yersiniaceae
Gardnerella
Pseudomonas
Parvimonas
unclassified Enterobacteriaceae
Megasphaera
Yersinia

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine

Signature 2

Edit History Delete

Mark reviewed

Your review change was submitted

Needs review

Curated date: 2025/06/24

Curator: Aleru Divine

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine

Source: Table 4

Description: The Kruskal-Wallis H tests and LEfSe analysis of the associations between normal control women and PID patients.

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) group

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Bacillota
Candidatus Saccharimonadota
Bacilli
Candidatus Saccharimonadia
Candidatus Saccharimonadales
Candidatus Saccharimonadaceae
Propionibacteriales
Lactobacillaceae
Moraxellaceae
Propionibacteriaceae
Lactobacillus
unclassified Lactobacillaceae
AF125206AF125206
Cutibacterium
Actinotignum
Lactobacillales

Revision editor(s): Aleru Divine