BJOG. 2021 May 30. doi: 10.1111/1471-0528.16782. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of vaginal microbiota on pregnancy outcomes in women undergoing assisted reproduction.
DESIGN: A prospective cohort study.
SETTING: A university-based assisted reproductive technology (ART) centre.
POPULATION: 223 women undergoing ART treatment.
METHODS: Prior to embryo transfer, vaginal samples were collected from the posterior fornix. Vaginal microbiota identification was carried out using next-generation sequencing and categorised according to the V3-V4 hypervariable region in the 16S rRNA gene region.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: ART clinical outcomes (implantation, clinical pregnancy rates, and live birth rates) RESULT(S): The live birth rate in women with community state type (CST)-I (39%) was higher than that in women with CST-III (21.5%), but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.052). The relative abundance of Lactobacillus was lower in women who failed to become pregnant (NP group) (67.71%) than in women who became pregnant (PR group) (79.72%). However, this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.06). In the NP group, the relative abundance of Streptococcus (7.81%) and Gardnerella (9.40%) was higher than that in the PR group (relative abundance of Streptococcus and Gardnerella was 2.28% and 5.56%, respectively). The abundance of Streptococcus was found to be statistically significantly different between the two study groups (p = 0.014). Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) further validated that Streptococcus had the highest contribution (LDA score >4.0) to the difference between these two groups.
CONCLUSION(S): Streptococcus has the highest contribution to the distinction between the PR and NP groups.
FUNDING: This study was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), project number 215S738.
PMID:34053157 | DOI:10.1111/1471-0528.16782
