The vaginal microbiota is complex ecosystem influenced by ethnic background, genes, and environmental and behavioural factors. The healthy vagina is dominated by several Lactobacillus species that support the defence system against infection and dysbiosis (an imbalance in the microbial community that is associated with disease). The acidic metabolites of these species maintain the low pH and impair the colonization by aerobic and anaerobic acid sensitive bacteria. Consequently, maintaining low microbiota diversity in the vagina. High microbiota diversity in the vagina found to be associated with increased risk of bacterial infection known as bacterial vaginosis.
According to recent study published in Nature Medicine, Serrano et al. examined the vaginal microbiome of women in cross-sectional sampled cohort of 1,969 non-pregnant and 613 pregnant women of African, Hispanic or European ancestry and a longitudinal sampled cohort of 90 pregnant women of African and non-African ancestry.
Keywords: Microbiota, Vaginal microbiota, ethnicity and microbiota, non-pregnant women, pregnant women
Reference:
Serrano, M. G., Parikh, H. I., Brooks, J. P., Edwards, D. J., Arodz, T. J., Edupuganti, L., Huang, B., Girerd, P. H., Bokhari, Y. A., Bradley, S. P., Brooks, J. L., Dickinson, M. R., Drake, J. I., Duckworth, R. A., 3rd, Fong, S. S., Glascock, A. L., Jean, S., Jimenez, N. R., Khoury, J., Koparde, V. N., … Buck, G. A. (2019). Racioethnic diversity in the dynamics of the vaginal microbiome during pregnancy. Nature medicine, 25(6), 1001–1011. Click here.
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