Structural Characterization of Vaginal Microbiota in Threatened Abortion Patients with Syndrome of Kidney Deficiency by 16S rRNA Sequencing / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the structural features of vaginal microbiota in the early threatened abortion patients with the syndrome of kidney deficiency. MethodThirty-one patients with early threatened abortion of kidney deficiency syndrome （DK-TA group） and 116 women with normal early pregnancy （NP group） attending the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine from May 2018 to December 2020 were selected. The vaginal secretions were collected for 16S rRNA sequencing， which can reveal the vaginal microbiota composition and differential bacteria between the two groups. ResultThe DK-TA group had higher abundance and diversity of vaginal microbiota than the NP group. The Binary jaccard and unweighted_unifrac distance matrix analysis showed that the similarity， dispersion， abundance， and phylogenetic relationship of vaginal microbiota were significantly different between the two groups. At the phylum level， the DK-TA group had lower relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria and higher relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes than the NP group. At the genus level， the DK-TA group had lower relative abundance of Sneathia and Bifidobacterium and higher relative abundance of Escherichia-Shigella and Shuttleworthia than the NP group. Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size（LEfSe）revealed that Bacteroidetes， Fusobacteria， and Bifidobacteria were dominant in the NP group and Proteobacteria and Firmicutes in the DK-TA group. The function prediction found that DK-TA was closely associated with 38 functional pathways， including cyclic adenosine monophosphate signaling pathway and regulation of tryptophan channels by inflammatory mediators. In addition， the vaginal differential bacteria between the two groups had significant positive or negative association with the differential metabolic pathways. ConclusionProteobacteria， Gemmatimonadetes， and Bacteroidetes in the vaginal microbiota may be biomarkers for threatened abortion of kidney deficiency syndrome.