Abstract
The vaginal microbiota of healthy women typically has low diversity, which increases after perturbations. Among these, lifestyle associated with certain sexual and antimicrobial practices may be associated with higher diversity. To test this hypothesis, we characterized the vaginal microbiota in the cervicovaginal and introital sites in sexually active Amerindians (N = 82) spanning urbanization, and in urban mestizos (N = 29), in the Venezuelan Amazonas. HPV status was also considered. Sampling was performed in an urban gradient from remote villages to a town, and women were individually classified by the degree of urbanization (low, medium, and high). Amerindian cervicovaginal and introital microbiota diversity were not associated with major changes in urbanization or ethnicity. There was a non-significant trend of increased diversity with urbanization, with a few taxa found overrepresented in urban Amerindians (Brevibacterium linens and Peptoniphilus lacrimalis) or mestizos (Mobiluncus mulieris and Prevotella sp.). Among all women, cervicovaginal and introital samples clustered, respectively, in four and two community state types (CSTs), where most profiles were dominated by Lactobacillus iners, Gardnerella vaginalis or were highly diverse profiles. HPV status did not associate with microbial diversity. In conclusion, no association was found between urban level and the vaginal microbiome in Amerindian women, and little difference was found between ethnicities. L. iners and high diversity profiles, associated with vaginal health outcomes, prevail in these populations.
Highlights
The vaginal microbiota of healthy women typically has low diversity, which increases after perturbations
There were marked differences in lifestyle among Amerindians urbanization groups. These differences included an increment with urbanization of industrialized food consumption and education and sexual contact with mestizo men and a decrement with urbanization of crop gardening practices and number of pregnancies (Table S1)
Previous work has been done in the oral mucosa44,45, skin[45,46], and gut[45,47] microbiota of Amerindians and other populations, but this work is a pioneer in studying the vaginal microbiota in relation with lifestyle
Summary
The vaginal microbiota of healthy women typically has low diversity, which increases after perturbations. Lifestyle associated with certain sexual and antimicrobial practices may be associated with higher diversity To test this hypothesis, we characterized the vaginal microbiota in the cervicovaginal and introital sites in sexually active Amerindians (N = 82) spanning urbanization, and in urban mestizos (N = 29), in the Venezuelan Amazonas. Vaginal profiles with high bacterial diversity has been associated with increased risk for pelvic inflammatory d iseases[8], preterm b irths[9,10], and sexually transmitted infections (HIV11, herpes simplex virus type 212 and human papillomavirus (HPV)[11,13,14,15,16,17,18].
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