The vaginal microbiota during pregnancy

Hanora, Amro; Amin, Mariam E.; Azab, Marwa M; Shabayek, Sarah; Atwa, Khaled

doi:10.21608/rpbs.2023.196524.1213

The vaginal microbiota during pregnancy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Faculty of Pharmacy - Suez Canal University

² 4.5Km Ring Road

³ Microbiology and Immunology, Microbiology and Immunology Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Suez Canal University, Ismaillia 41522, Egypt

10.21608/rpbs.2023.196524.1213

Abstract

Fetal development is considered to occur inside the microbiota-free intrauterine environment. Depending on recently published data resources, it is anticipated that the neonatal microbiome is established primarily throughout the amniotic membrane rupture, with extra microbiota introduced by the passage of the fetus through the vaginal birth canal. Upon delivery, the neonate has been familiarized with the maternal microbiota of the vaginal ecosystem. Since the fetus is introduced to numerous bacterial environments during the early neonatal interval such as the vaginal canal, skin, and rectum, it is important to describe the potential influence of the maternal vaginal microbial community on neonates. Dynamic changes in the vaginal microbiome during the pregnancy including decreased vaginal diversity and Lactobacillus-dominance contribute to diminished risk of preterm birth as well as other adverse pregnancy outcomes. This minireview summarizes the composition of the vaginal microbiota during normal pregnancy as revealed by culture-independent high-throughput sequencing-based techniques such as 16S rRNA next-generation sequencing and metagenomic shotgun sequencing techniques.

Keywords