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Vaginal microbiota of adolescent girls prior to the onset of menarche resemble those of reproductive-age women.

ABSTRACT: UNLABELLED:Puberty is an important developmental stage wherein hormonal shifts mediate the physical and physiological changes that lead to menarche, but until now, the bacterial composition of vaginal microbiota during this period has been poorly characterized. We performed a prospective longitudinal study of perimenarcheal girls to gain insight into the timing and sequence of changes that occur in the vaginal and vulvar microbiota during puberty. The study enrolled 31 healthy, premenarcheal girls between the ages of 10 and 12 years and collected vaginal and vulvar swabs quarterly for up to 3 years. Bacterial composition was characterized by Roche 454 pyrosequencing and classification of regions V1 to V3 of 16S rRNA genes. Contrary to expectations, lactic acid bacteria, primarily Lactobacillus spp., were dominant in the microbiota of most girls well before the onset of menarche in the early to middle stages of puberty. Gardnerella vaginalis was detected at appreciable levels in approximately one-third of subjects, a notable finding considering that this organism is commonly associated with bacterial vaginosis in adults. Vulvar microbiota closely resembled vaginal microbiota but often exhibited additional taxa typically associated with skin microbiota. Our findings suggest that the vaginal microbiota of girls begin to resemble those of adults well before the onset of menarche. IMPORTANCE:This study addresses longitudinal changes in vaginal and vulvar microbial communities prior to and immediately following menarche. The research is significant because microbial ecology of the vagina is an integral aspect of health, including resistance to infections. The physiologic changes of puberty and initiation of cyclic menstruation are likely to have profound effects on vaginal microbiota, but almost nothing is known about changes that normally occur during this time. Our understanding has been especially hampered by the lack of thorough characterization of microbial communities using techniques that do not rely on the cultivation of fastidious bacteria, as well as a dearth of studies on girls in the early to middle stages of puberty. This study improves our understanding of the normal development of vaginal microbiota during puberty and onset of menarche and may better inform clinical approaches to vulvovaginal care of adolescent girls.

SUBMITTER: Hickey RJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4453513 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Vaginal microbiota of adolescent girls prior to the onset of menarche resemble those of reproductive-age women.

Hickey Roxana J RJ Zhou Xia X Settles Matthew L ML Erb Julie J Malone Kristin K Hansmann Melanie A MA Shew Marcia L ML Van Der Pol Barbara B Fortenberry J Dennis JD Forney Larry J LJ

mBio 20150324 2

<h4>Unlabelled</h4>Puberty is an important developmental stage wherein hormonal shifts mediate the physical and physiological changes that lead to menarche, but until now, the bacterial composition of vaginal microbiota during this period has been poorly characterized. We performed a prospective longitudinal study of perimenarcheal girls to gain insight into the timing and sequence of changes that occur in the vaginal and vulvar microbiota during puberty. The study enrolled 31 healthy, premenarc ...[more]

PMID: 25805726

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Project description:Age at menarche is closely related to scoliosis progression during adolescence. Current data concerning the timing of menarche between scoliotic and non-scoliotic girls in the literature are conflicting, with inconclusive results. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution difference of age at menarche for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) girls and normal control population and to subsequently elucidate the menarche age difference through literature reviewing. Moreover, menarche age of AIS girls with Cobb angle <40°, 40-60°, >60° were compared to estimate its association with curve severity. Menstrual status data were available for 6,376 healthy female adolescents and 2,196 AIS girls. We notice that less than 10% of healthy Chinese girls experienced onset of menses before 11.38 years, and approximately 90% of healthy Chinese girls were menstruating by 13.88 years, with a median age of 12.63 years. As for AIS girls, less than 10% started to menstruate before 11.27 years, and approximately 90% were menstruating by 14.38 years, with a median age of 12.83 years. Average menarche age in AIS (12.83 ± 1.22 years) was significantly later than that of normal control girls (12.63 ± 0.98 years) (p < 0.001). Age at menarche for AIS affected girls was significantly greater than that of normal control girls at 75%, 90% of whom had attained menarche (p = 0.001, p < 0.001). Proportion of girls starting to menstruate after 14 years was significantly higher in AIS population compared with normal controls (16.3 vs. 8.1%, p < 0.001). In addition, AIS girls with Cobb angle >60° experienced onset of menses at an average age of 13.25 years, which was significantly later than AIS girls with Cobb angle <40° (12.81 years, p < 0.05) and marginally significantly later than AIS girls with Cobb angle between 40 and 60° (12.86 years, p = 0.053). In conclusion, a tendency of delayed onset of menarche was observed in Chinese idiopathic scoliotic girls in this large sample study, especially for girls with Cobb angle >60°, which is supported by multiple previously established positive linkages on AIS etiology studies. Accordingly it is believed that late menarche may contribute importantly to abnormal pubertal growth and subsequently modulate curve behavior in AIS.

Dataset Information

Vaginal microbiota of adolescent girls prior to the onset of menarche resemble those of reproductive-age women.

Publications

Vaginal microbiota of adolescent girls prior to the onset of menarche resemble those of reproductive-age women.

Similar Datasets

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