The association between diversity and composition of vaginal microbiota of Iranian women with and without human papillomavirus infection

Objective: Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical adenocarcinoma are the most common human papillomavirus (HPV)-related diseases. The present study is aimed at examining the association between diversity and composition of vaginal microbiota in HPV-positive and HPV-negative Iranian women by quantitative PCR. Method: In this study, 69 vaginal samples with and without manifestation of HPV were obtained from women referring to a gynecology clinic and extracted DNA was introduced to real-time PCR looking for the HPV serotypes and bacterial load by using bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Results: Out of 64 samples, 16 isolates were normal, 13 isolates were clearance or HPV-negative, and 16 isolates were persistence or HPV-positive. Lactobacillus spp. is the predominant vaginal microbiota in normal women and its count became lower at HPV-negative and finally became zero at HPV-positive group. We could approve a significant increase in the colony count of Bacteroides, and Bifidobacteria in HPV 16 group. The statistical analysis did not show any significant association between the frequency or presence of each bacterium and the types of cervical cell abnormalities (P value <0.05). Conclusion: Despite the vaginal bacteria were more frequent among patients with HPV and low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), it was not statistically significant. Copyright (C) 2021 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.