2020 · Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · open access
Growth Forms of <i>Gardnerella</i> spp. and <i>Lactobacillus</i> spp. on Vaginal Cells
Jung et al.
The finding, in our words
Among 196 women providing first-void urine, bacterial vaginosis correlated with Gardnerella biofilms on vaginal cells (88–90% of cases) and inversely with Lactobacillus biofilms. This confirms bacterial growth form as a diagnostic marker for vaginal dysbiosis, though no association was found with UTI symptoms, HIV status, or discharge.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a small proof-of-concept, first-void urine and cervicovaginal brushes yielded high-quality vaginal microbiome profiles in most participants, comparable to vaginal swabs, offering non-invasive, user-friendly alternatives for research; however, storage at room temperature altered microbial composition in some first-void urine samples, indicating a need for careful handling.
Women with chlamydial infection show reduced microbial diversity in first-void urine, with depletion of Mycoplasmataceae and Ureaplasma parvum and elevated hippurate and lactulose. This demonstrates that urine microbiome and metabolome analysis can reveal infection signatures, supporting decentralised STI screening approaches.
In 50 prostate cancer patients, first‑void urine collection captured bacteria more frequently than midstream sampling (87.8% versus 75.3% of specimens), and radiotherapy caused a temporary reduction in urinary microbiome species richness. These findings validate first‑void sampling for decentralised microbiome monitoring in oncology.
First-void urine from men with idiopathic urethritis and from controls contains a highly diverse bacterial microbiota with no consistent clustering by case status, although some idiopathic urethritis samples are dominated by single genera previously linked to urethritis such as Gardnerella, Haemophilus or Ureaplasma. The findings suggest that microbiome profiling of self-collected urine may inform aetiological investigation in idiopathic urethritis but requires larger cohorts to define diagnostic utility.
First-void urine self-collection detected bacterial vaginosis with sensitivity comparable to vaginal swabs when analysed by quantitative PCR for seven key vaginal bacteria. This supports decentralised screening for BV and sexually transmitted infections using patient-collected samples.