Characterization of vaginal microbiota in Thai women

Auttawit Sirichoat; Pranom Buppasiri; Chulapan Engchanil; Wises Namwat; Kiatichai Faksri; Nipaporn Sankuntaw; Ekawat Pasomsub; Wasun Chantratita; Viraphong Lulitanond

doi:10.7717/peerj.5977

Characterization of vaginal microbiota in Thai women

PeerJ. 2018 Nov 21:6:e5977. doi: 10.7717/peerj.5977. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Auttawit Sirichoat¹, Pranom Buppasiri², Chulapan Engchanil¹, Wises Namwat¹, Kiatichai Faksri¹, Nipaporn Sankuntaw³, Ekawat Pasomsub⁴, Wasun Chantratita⁵, Viraphong Lulitanond¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology and Research and Diagnostic Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand.
³ Chulabhorn International College of Medicine, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand.
⁴ Division of Virology, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
⁵ Medical Genome Center, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Abstract

Background: The vaginal microbiota (VMB) plays a key role in women's reproductive health. VMB composition varies with ethnicity, making it necessary to characterize the VMB of the target population before interventions to maintain and/or improve the vaginal health are undertaken. Information on the VMB of Thai women is currently unavailable. We therefore characterized the VMB in normal Thai women.

Methods: Vaginal samples derived from 25 Thai women were subjected to 16S rRNA gene next-generation sequencing (NGS) on the Ion Torrent PGM platform.

Results: Two groups of VMB were detected, lactobacilli-dominated (LD) and non-lactobacilli dominated (NLD) groups. Lactobacillus iners was the most common species found in the LD group while Gardnerella vaginalis followed by Atopobium vaginae and Pseudumonas stutzeri were commonly found in the NLD group.

Conclusions: The VMB patterns present in normal Thai women is essential information to further determine the factors associated with VMB patterns in vaginal health and disease and to develop proper management of reproductive health of Thai women.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene next-generation sequencing; Bacterial vaginosis; Gardnerella vaginalis; Lactobacillus; Thailand; Vaginal microbiota.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Royal Golden Jubilee (RGJ)-Ph.D. program Grant (PHD/0133/2558) of the Thailand Research Fund (TRF), Thailand. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.