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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.01251-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Dynamics of vaginal bacterial communities in women developing bacterial vaginosis, candidiasis or no infection analysed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and real-time PCR

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, CIRB-center for Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Femicare Clinical Research for Women, Tienen, Belgium, Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, General Hospital Heilig Hart Tienen and University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: patrizia.brigidi{at}unibo.it.

	Abstract

The microbial flora of the vagina plays a major role in preventing genital infections, including bacterial vaginosis (BV) and candidiasis (CA). An integrated approach based on polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) and real-time PCR was used to study the structure and dynamics of bacterial communities in vaginal fluids of healthy women and patients developing BV and CA. Universal eubacterial primers and Lactobacillus genus-specific primers, both targeted at 16S rDNA, were used in DGGE and real-time PCR analysis, respectively. The DGGE profiles revealed that the vaginal flora was dominated by Lactobacillus species in healthy conditions, whereas several potentially pathogenic bacteria were present in BV. Lactobacilli were the predominant bacterial population in vagina of patients affected by CA, but changes in composition of Lactobacillus species were observed. Real-time PCR analysis allowed the quantitative estimation of variations in lactobacilli associated with BV and CA diseases. A statistically significant decrease of lactobacilli relative abundance was found in vaginal fluids of patients with BV compared to healthy women and patients with CA.