CGPH FACULTY: Lee Riley, Art Reingold
DATE OF PUBLICATION: May 2014
REGION: Asia
REFERENCE: Madhivanan P, Raphael E, Rumphs A, Krupp K, Ravi K, Srinivas V, Arun A, Reingold AL, Klausner JD, Riley LW. Characterisation of culturable vaginal Lactobacillus species among women with and without Bacterial Vaginosis from the United States and India: A cross-sectional study. J Med Microbiol. 2014 May 16.
SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Lactobacillus plays an integral part in the health of the vaginal microbiota. We compared vaginal Lactobacillus species in women with and without bacterial vaginosis (BV) from India and the US. Between July 2009 and November 2010, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 40 women attending a women’s health clinic in Mysore, India, and STD clinic in San Francisco, USA. Women were diagnosed for BV by Amsel’s criteria and Nugent Score. Lactobacilli were isolated from all healthy women but only 10% of Indian, and 50% of US women with BV. 16SrDNA from 164 Lactobacillus colonies were sequenced from healthy women (126 colonies) and women with BV (38 colonies). Seven cultivable Lactobacillus species were isolated from 11 Indian women, and 9 species from 15 US women. The majority of Lactobacillus colonies in Indian women were L. crispatus (25%), L. jensenii (25%), and L. reuteri (16.7%). Among US women, L. crispatus (32.0%), L. jensenii (20.0%), and L. coleohominis (12.0%) predominated. L. jensenii and L. crispatus dominated the vaginal flora of healthy Indian and US women. Indian women appeared to have a higher percentage of obligative heterofermentative species suggesting the need for a larger degree of metabolic flexibility and a more challenging vaginal environment.
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