title: Comparison of self-collected and physician-collected vaginal swabs for microbiome analysis.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department fo Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-3051, USA. lforney@uidaho.edu
authors.forename: Larry J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Forney
authors.forename: Pawel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gajer
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: G Maria
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Sara S K
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.forename: Stacey L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: McCulle
authors.forename: Shara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karlebach
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Brotman
authors.forename: Catherine C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ault
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ravel
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S