Comparison of self-collected and physician-collected vaginal swabs for microbiome analysis.
To our knowledge, no data are available on whether the microbial species composition and abundance sampled with self-collected vaginal swabs are comparable to those of swabs collected by clinicians. Twenty healthy women were recruited to the study during a routine gynecological visit. Eligible women were between 18 and 40 years old with regular menstrual cycles. Participants self-collected a vaginal swab using a standardized protocol and then were examined by a physician, who collected an additional five swabs from the lateral wall of the mid-vagina. In this study, the self-collected and three physician-obtained swabs were analyzed and compared using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequence analyses of the 16S rRNA genes. Vaginal microbial community comparative statistical analyses of both T-RFLP and 16S rRNA gene sequence datasets revealed that self-collected vaginal swabs sampled the same microbial diversity as physician collected swabs of the mid-vagina. These findings enable large-scale, field-based studies of the vaginal microbiome.
Forney
Larry J
LJ
Department fo Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-3051, USA. lforney@uidaho.edu
Gajer
Pawel
P
Williams
Christopher J
CJ
Schneider
G Maria
GM
Koenig
Sara S K
SS
McCulle
Stacey L
SL
Karlebach
Shara
S
Brotman
Rebecca M
RM
Davis
Catherine C
CC
Ault
Kevin
K
Ravel
Jacques
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044822:Biodiversity; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D054892:Metagenome; D010802:Phylogeny; D010820:Physicians; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D016353:Self-Examination; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014621:Vagina / Q000382:microbiology*; D055815:Young Adult
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S