Perioperative Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Cesarean Section and the Maternal Gut Microbiome: Protocol for a Remote Observational Cohort Study

In a one-week virtual home clinic with 134 participants, 86 per cent returned saliva and 84 per cent returned stool, and most components were feasible and acceptable despite device and logistical challenges. This supports decentralised, patient-centric self-collection of non-blood biospecimens for research.

Collecting at-Home Biometric Measures for Longitudinal Research From the i3C: Feasibility and Acceptability Study — Russell et al., JMIR human factors · source ↗

• dct
• acceptability
• self-collection
• microbiome
• stool
• saliva
• genotyping

Analysis of self-collected stool samples from 309 participants demonstrated that proton pump inhibitor use is significantly associated with an enrichment of Streptococcus species in the gut. This confirms the suitability of decentralised self-sampling for conducting large-scale metagenomic analyses in population studies.

Gut Microbial Variations Associated With Proton Pump Inhibitor Use in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study — Dinesh et al., Pharmacology research & perspectives · source ↗

• stool
• self-collection
• microbiome

This pilot study found that mailing self-collection kits to endometrial cancer survivors was feasible and acceptable, whilst also observing that chemotherapy or radiation reduced beneficial vaginal bacteria compared to surgery alone.

Stool and vaginal microbiome profiles patterns among Black and White endometrial cancer survivors: A pilot study in North Carolina — Jin et al., PloS one · source ↗

• stool
• self-collection
• acceptability
• microbiome

Taxonomic and diversity profiles differed between unstabilised swabs and stabilised OmniGene kits, with transport time disproportionately affecting swab samples; the collection method had a greater impact on taxa and diversity than transport time, highlighting the need for standardised stool collection in decentralised microbiome studies.

Stabilized and unstabilized sampling methods result in differential fecal 16S rRNA microbial sequencing results — Stamper et al., PloS one · source ↗

• stabilised
• dna-genotek-omnigene
• self-collection
• microbiome
• stool

Self-collected oral and stool samples revealed distinct microbiome compositions in patients with endometriosis compared to controls, with Fusobacterium enrichment specifically observed in oral samples from moderate to severe cases. These results support the feasibility of decentralised self-collection for non-invasive biomarker screening in reproductive health.

Oral, Vaginal, and Stool Microbial Signatures in Patients With Endometriosis as Potential Diagnostic Non-Invasive Biomarkers: A Prospective Cohort Study — Hicks et al., BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · source ↗

• self-collection
• microbiome
• fertility
• stool
• saliva
• biomarkers