Microbiome of the Lower Genital Tract in Chinese Women with Endometriosis by 16s rRNA Sequencing Technique: A Pilot Study

Sikai Chen, Zhiyue Gu, Wen Zhang, Shuangzheng Jia, Yushi Wu, Ping Zheng, Yi Dai, Jinhua Leng
2019 · doi:10.20944/preprints201911.0147.v1 · W3125011857
preprint OA: green CC0 ⤵ 1 in-corpus citation
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This pilot study analyzed 16S rRNA sequences from Chinese women and found that Atopobium bacteria were distinctively higher in patients with both endometriosis and adenomyosis.

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Abstract

Abstract Objective: Endometriosis is a chronic disease characterized by the growth of endometrial cells outside the uterine cavity. The dysfunction of the immune system is strongly associated with the progression of endometriosis, and is also correlated to the diversity of microbiota in the genital tract. According to previous studies, the microbiota significantly contributes to multi-systemic function, but the evidence of endometriosis and adenomyosis remains insufficient. Thus, the present study attempted to identify the characteristics of microbiota in endometriosis patients, and the connection between microbiota and immunological dysfunction. Methods: In order to compare and explore the potential microbiota correlated to endometriosis and adenomyosis in the genital tract, 134 samples obtained from the cervical canal, posterior fornix and uterine cavity were analyzed by 16s-rRNA sequencing. The raw data was filtered, analyzed and visualized, and bio-information methods were used to identify the different and distinctive characteristics of microbiota. Results: Two different locations near the cervix, cervical canal and posterior fornix, exhibited no differences in alpha diversity. Among the different disease groups, five microbiota were distinctive in the genus level, and Atopobium presented with the greatest significance in adenomyoisis-endometriosis patients. The LEfSe analysis failed to identify the special biomarkers, while several characteristic functions were identified through PICRUSt. Conclusion: Lactobacillus is dominant in the female lower genital tract, and Atopobium is distinctively higher in patients with endometriosis combined with adenomyosis. Several different functions of microbiota were explored, and these are found to be associated with endometriosis and adenomyosis. These findings may provide a new concept of microbiota/immune system/endometriosis system. There is an urgent need to investigate the potential microbial biomarkers of endometriosis in the future.

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endometriosisadenomyosis

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