Comparison of the vaginal microbiota diversity of women with and without human papillomavirus infection: a cross-sectional study

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/09/29

study design

cross-sectional observational, not case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

23758857

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1186/1471-2334-13-271

URI

Authors

Gao W, Weng J, Gao Y, Chen X

Journal

BMC infectious diseases

Year

2013

BACKGROUND: The female genital tract is an important bacterial habitat of the human body, and vaginal microbiota plays a crucial role in vaginal health. The alteration of vaginal microbiota affects millions of women annually, and is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes, including human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. However, previous studies have primarily focused on the association between bacterial vaginosis and HPV infection. Little is known about the composition of vaginal microbial communities involved in HPV acquisition. The present study was performed to investigate whether HPV infection was associated with the diversity and composition of vaginal microbiota. METHODS: A total of 70 healthy women (32 HPV-negative and 38 HPV-positive) with normal cervical cytology were enrolled in this study. Culture-independent polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis was used to measure the diversity and composition of vaginal microbiota of all subjects. RESULTS: We found significantly greater biological diversity in the vaginal microbiota of HPV-positive women (p < 0.001). Lactobacillus, including L. gallinarum, L. iners and L. gasseri, was the predominant genus and was detected in all women. No significant difference between HPV-positive and HPV-negative women was found for the frequency of detection of L. gallinarum (p = 0.775) or L. iners (p = 0.717), but L. gasseri was found at a significantly higher frequency in HPV-positive women (p = 0.005). Gardnerella vaginalis was also found at a significantly higher frequency in HPV-positive women (p = 0.031). Dendrograms revealed that vaginal microbiota from the two groups had different profiles. CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first systematic evaluation of an association between vaginal microbiota and HPV infection, and we have demonstrated that compared with HPV-negative women, the bacterial diversity of HPV-positive women is more complex and the composition of vaginal microbiota is different.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Claregrieve1 on 2022/09/29

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, WikiWorks

Subjects

Location of subjects: China

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 Vagina,vagina,Distal oviductal region,Distal portion of oviduct,Vaginae

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Human papilloma virus infection HPV,Human Papilloma Virus Infection,Human papilloma Virus infection,human papilloma virus infection,Human papillomavirus caused disease or disorder,Human papillomavirus disease or disorder,Human Papillomavirus Infection,Human Papillomavirus infection,Human papillomavirus infectious disease,Human papilloma virus infection

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

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: HPV positive women

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: women positive for HPV infection

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 38

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 32

Antibiotics exclusion Number of days without antibiotics usage (if applicable) and other antibiotics-related criteria used to exclude participants (if any): 1 month

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V2-V3

Statistical Analysis

Statistical test: Chi-Square

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

Alpha Diversity

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

Signature 1

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Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Fatima Zohra

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Source: Table 4

Description: Differential microbial abundance between HPV positive and HPV negative women

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in HPV positive women

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Gardnerella vaginalis
Lactobacillus gasseri

Revision editor(s): Claregrieve1, WikiWorks