Characterization of culturable vaginal Lactobacillus species among women with and without bacterial vaginosis from the United States and India: a cross-sectional study.
Lactobacillus species play an integral part in the health of the vaginal microbiota. We compared vaginal Lactobacillus species in women from India and the USA with and without bacterial vaginosis (BV). Between July 2009 and November 2010, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 40 women attending a women's health clinic in Mysore, India, and a sexually transmitted diseases clinic in San Francisco, USA. Women were diagnosed with BV using Amsel's criteria and the Nugent score. Lactobacillus 16S rDNA was sequenced to speciate the cultured isolates. Ten Indian and 10 US women without BV were compared with an equal number of women with BV. Lactobacilli were isolated from all healthy women, but from only 10% of Indian and 50% of US women with BV. 16S rDNA from 164 Lactobacillus colonies was sequenced from healthy women (126 colonies) and women with BV (38 colonies). Seven cultivable Lactobacillus species were isolated from 11 Indian women and nine species from 15 US women. The majority of Lactobacillus species among Indian women were L. crispatus (25.0%), L. jensenii (25.0%) and L. reuteri (16.7%). Among US women, L. crispatus (32.0%), L. jensenii (20.0%) and L. coleohominis (12.0%) predominated. L. jensenii and L. crispatus dominated the vaginal flora of healthy Indian and US women. Indian women appeared to have a higher percentage of obligate heterofermentative species, suggesting the need for a larger degree of metabolic flexibility and a more challenging vaginal environment.
Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, India.|Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
Purnima
P
Madhivanan
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Eva
E
Raphael
Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
Alnecia
A
Rumphs
Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, India.|Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
Karl
K
Krupp
Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, India.
Kavitha
K
Ravi
Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, India.
Vijaya
V
Srinivas
Public Health Research Institute of India, Mysore, India.
Anjali
A
Arun
Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Arthur L
AL
Reingold
Division of Infectious Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
Jeffrey D
JD
Klausner
Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Lee W
LW
Riley
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D012495:San Francisco / Q000453:epidemiology; D016585:Vaginosis, Bacterial / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D055815:Young Adult