Diversity of Vaginal Lactic Acid Bacterial Microbiota in 15 Algerian Pregnant Women with and without Bacterial Vaginosis by using Culture Independent Method

Souad Alioua; Akila Abdi; Imène Fhoula; Françoise Bringel; Abdelatif Boudabous; Imene Hadda Ouzari

doi:10.7860/JCDR/2016/21621.8546

Diversity of Vaginal Lactic Acid Bacterial Microbiota in 15 Algerian Pregnant Women with and without Bacterial Vaginosis by using Culture Independent Method

J Clin Diagn Res. 2016 Sep;10(9):DC23-DC27. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2016/21621.8546. Epub 2016 Sep 1.

Authors

Souad Alioua¹, Akila Abdi², Imène Fhoula³, Françoise Bringel⁴, Abdelatif Boudabous⁵, Imene Hadda Ouzari⁵

Affiliations

¹ PhD Candidate, Laboratory of Biochemistry and Applied Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University Badji Mokhtar , Annaba, Algeria .
² Assistant Professor, Laboratory of Biochemistry and Applied Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University Badji Mokhtar , Annaba, Algeria .
³ PhD, Laboratory of Micro-organisms and Active Biomolecules LR03ES03, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tunis El Manar, 2092 Tunis, Tunisia .
⁴ Professor, Department of Microbiology, Genomics and the Environment, Université de Strasbourg UMR 7156 UNISTRA CNRS, France .
⁵ Professor, Laboratory of Micro-organisms and Active Biomolecules LR03ES03, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tunis El Manar, 2092 Tunis, Tunisia .

Abstract

Introduction: Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) is the most common lower genital tract disorder among women of reproductive age (pregnant and non-pregnant) and a better knowledge of Lactobacillus species richness in healthy and infected vaginal microbiota is needed to efficiently design better probiotic products to promote the maintenance of normal flora which will help prevent bacterial vaginosis.

Aim: To evaluate and compare the diversity of lactic acid bacterial species in pregnant women with and without BV.

Materials and methods: A pilot study was carried out during November-2014 to March-2015 in University Badji Mokhtar, Annaba, Algeria. Vaginal swabs were collected from 15 pregnant women aged between 19 and 35 years (mean 27.6 years; n=15) living in the East of Algeria visiting Gynecology service, hospital Abdallah Nouaouria- El bouni, Annaba. Vaginal samples were gram-stained, and scored by the Nugent method. The cohort included cases of women with healthy "normal" vaginal flora, infected flora with bacterial vaginosis and women with "intermediate" flora. The vaginal LAB community from pregnant women was identified by culture independent method based on Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE), with the 16S rRNA gene sequencing.

Results: A majority of LAB affiliated to the genus Lactobacillus was found in "normal" and "intermediate" flora (87.5% and 43.75% respectively), while a majority of LAB affiliated to the genus Enterococcus was identified in women with bacterial vaginosis and intermediate flora (60% and 46.75% respectively). Our results showed that the presence of Lactobacillus iners and Lactobacillus delbruekii promotes stability of the vaginal microbiota.

Conclusion: This result confirms the findings of previous studies suggesting that the occurrence of predominant Lactobacillus negatively correlates with bacterial vaginosis incidence and their current use as probiotics. Lactobacillus iners and Lactobacillus delbruekii can be defined as critical for defense of the vagina. In addition, Enterococcus feacalis can be considered as an indicator of imbalance of the vaginal ecosystem.

Keywords: DGGE; Enterococcus; Lactic acid bacteria; Lactobacillus; Vaginal infections.