Cervicovaginal bacteria are a major modulator of host inflammatory responses in the female genital tract.

Immunity
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Colonization by Lactobacillus in the female genital tract is thought to be critical for maintaining genital health. However, little is known about how genital microbiota influence host immune function and modulate disease susceptibility. We studied a cohort of asymptomatic young South African women and found that the majority of participants had genital communities with low Lactobacillus abundance and high ecological diversity. High-diversity communities strongly correlated with genital pro-inflammatory cytokine concentrations in both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Transcriptional profiling suggested that genital antigen-presenting cells sense gram-negative bacterial products in situ via Toll-like receptor 4 signaling, contributing to genital inflammation through activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway and recruitment of lymphocytes by chemokine production. Our study proposes a mechanism by which cervicovaginal microbiota impact genital inflammation and thereby might affect a woman's reproductive health, including her risk of acquiring HIV.

Year of Publication
2015
Journal
Immunity
Volume
42
Issue
5
Pages
965-76
Date Published
2015 May 19
ISSN
1097-4180
DOI
10.1016/j.immuni.2015.04.019
PubMed ID
25992865
PubMed Central ID
PMC4461369
Links
Grant list
R01 AI079085 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States
R01AI067073 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States
T32 GM007753 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
1R01AI111918 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States
R01 AI111918 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States
Howard Hughes Medical Institute / United States
T32GM007753 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States
5R01AI079085 / AI / NIAID NIH HHS / United States