title: Gravidas with class III obesity: evaluating the abdominal skin microbiota above and below the panniculus (.).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We sought to compare the skin microbiota above and below the panniculus of third-trimester pregnant women with class III obesity.
  
  
  METHODS
  We collected swabs from the anterior panniculus and from the intertriginous area under the panniculus of women with class III obesity (body mass index ≥40 kg/m(2)) carrying a live singleton at ≥28 weeks. DNA was extracted. PCR with primers targeting the 16S rDNA V4 region were used to prepare an amplicon library. PCR products were sequenced (Illumina MiSeq platform). The 16S rDNA sequences were processed, integrated, analyzed and reported using QIIME and in-house developed scripts. Taxonomy was assigned using RDP Classifier (threshold 0.8) against the Greengenes 16S rDNA database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty women were enrolled. One sample pair was excluded for low sequence depth. Using permutation testing, there was significantly less bacterial diversity in the samples above compared to below the panniculus (beta diversity using weighted UniFrac metrics; p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In pregnant women with class III obesity, the skin microbiota in the subpannicular fold differs from and is more diverse than that on the anterior panniculus.
authors.affiliation: a Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine , Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Center for Women's Reproductive Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA .
authors.forename: Rodney K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: b Biomedical Informatics, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA .
authors.forename: Ranjit
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: c Department of Biostatistics , University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA .
authors.forename: Degui
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhi
authors.affiliation: a Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine , Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Center for Women's Reproductive Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA .|c Department of Biostatistics , University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA .
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Szychowski
authors.affiliation: a Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine , Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Center for Women's Reproductive Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA .
authors.forename: Akila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Subramaniam
authors.affiliation: b Biomedical Informatics, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA .|d Department of Microbiology , University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA , and.
authors.forename: Elliot J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Lefkowitz
authors.affiliation: e Department of Cell , Developmental, and Integrative Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham , AL , USA.
authors.forename: Casey
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morrow
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000382:microbiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000382:microbiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology*; D050507:Subcutaneous Fat, Abdominal; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Intertriginous; microbiome; morbid obesity; pregnancy; skin flora