Vaginal Microbiota Diversity of Patients with Embryonic Miscarriage by Using 16S rDNA High-Throughput Sequencing

Linfen Xu; Lingna Huang; Chengying Lian; Huili Xue; Yanfang Lu; Xiujuan Chen; Yong Xia

doi:10.1155/2020/1764959

Vaginal Microbiota Diversity of Patients with Embryonic Miscarriage by Using 16S rDNA High-Throughput Sequencing

Int J Genomics. 2020 Nov 20:2020:1764959. doi: 10.1155/2020/1764959. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Linfen Xu¹, Lingna Huang¹, Chengying Lian¹, Huili Xue², Yanfang Lu³, Xiujuan Chen¹, Yong Xia^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gynaecology, Fujian Provincial Maternity and Children's Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
² Department of Key Laboratory for Prenatal Diagnosis and Birth Defect, Fujian Provincial Maternity and Children's Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
³ Department of Laboratory, Fujian Provincial Maternity and Children's Hospital, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
⁴ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fuzhou Maternity and Child Health care Hospital, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
⁵ Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.

Abstract

Embryonic miscarriage severely affects the life quality and physical and mental state of pregnant women. However, the detailed mechanism underlying embryonic miscarriage is not fully understood. This study is aimed at analyzing embryonic miscarriage. We collected samples from 25 normal pregnant women and 25 embryonic miscarriage patients of similar age to analyze microbiota isolated from the vagina. Crude examination of the vagina isolates showed that compared with the control group, 80% of the embryonic miscarriage group contained a significantly lower number of Lactobacillus, the major healthy microbe in the vagina. Furthermore, the levels of Th1 and Th2 secreted cytokine interleukin 2 (IL-2) and interleukin10 (IL-10), respectively, were examined. Results showed that the IL2 level was higher, and IL10 level was lower in the embryonic miscarriage group than in the control group, whereas the IL2/IL10 level was higher in the embryonic miscarriage group than in the control group. This finding suggested that the immune response was suppressed in the embryonic miscarriage group. To further dissect the microbiota of the vagina in the two groups, 16S rDNA sequencing was performed. Bioinformatics analysis showed that 1096 and 998 overlapped operational taxonomic units were identified from the embryonic miscarriage and control groups, respectively. At the genus level, the relative abundance of Fam_Finegoldia, Lac_Coprococcus_3, and Lac_Roseburia significantly differed in the embryonic miscarriage group. Overall, our analyses provided potential biomarkers for embryonic miscarriage and elucidated the causative relationship between microbiota and immune responses and may enable the possible diagnosis and therapeutics of early pregnancy loss.