Community dynamics of the adolescent vaginal microbiome during puberty and onset of menarche

Roxana Hickey1, Xia Zhou1, Matthew Settles1, Julie Erb2, Kristin Malone2, Melanie Hansmann2, Barbara van der Pol3, J. Dennis Fortenberry4 & Larry Forney1

1University of Idaho, Moscow, ID; 2Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, OH; 3Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; 4Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN

vaginal microbiome of girls & moms

community dynamics & puberty

is study was designed and conducted with �nancial support from the Procter & Gamble Company and a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences from the National Institutes of Health, P30 RR033376. RH is supported on a Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Graduate Program Fellowship in partnership with the Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies.

study design & methods

vaginal microbiome over a lifespan

next steps: Gardnerella diversity

Bacterial communities are abundant in the human vagina and thought to play an important protective role in reproductive-age women. Very little is known about how these communities become established, particularly during the formative years of puberty.

transiently colonized by mom in vaginal delivery

birth

sparsely populated assortment of anaerobes

pre-puberty

increased estrogen; increase in Lactobacillus

puberty

host glycogen metabolized by Lactobacillus

reproductive age

decreased estrogen; decrease in Lactobacillus

menopause

?

?estrogen

production

lactic acid bacteria (e.g. Lactobacillus)

homolactic acid

fermentation

low vaginal pH (4-4.5)

epithelial glycogen

protection against

pathogens

'common wisdom' (reproductive age)

menarche

Tanner

girl (n=31)

study design

mom (n=25)

year 1 year 2 year 3

Adolescent girls and their mothers participated for up to 3 years in a study to assess changes in vaginal bacterial community composition as girls transitioned through puberty and into menarche.

Tanner stage 1

Tanner stage 2

Tanner stage 3

Tanner stage 4

Tanner stage 5

bacterial community analysisextract gDNA from vaginal swabs

sequence 16S rRNA genes (V1-V3) on Roche 454

classify taxa using RDP Bayesian Classifier

compare community composition (R package vegan)

1

2

3

4

Overall, the vaginal microbiome of adolescent girls was similar to that of moms in the study, including during earlier stages of puberty and prior to menarche.

Fig 1. Hierarchical clustering of vaginal bacterial community composition of adolescent girls and their mothers (Bray-Curtis distance)

Fig 2. Principal coordinates analysis of vaginal bacterial community composition

As is commonly observed in adults, vaginal bacterial communities of adolescent girls differed between individuals and varied over time.

Fig 3. Community dynamics, puberty metrics and vaginal pH of six individuals over the course of the study

Communities tended to be more diverse early in puberty, with many becoming Lactobacillus-dominant by mid- to late puberty. However, vaginal pH of both girls and moms in this study was typically above what is traditionally considered 'normal'.

Fig 4. Trends in Shannon diversity (a), Lactobacillus relative abundance (b), and vaginal pH (c) by subject (top row) and across puberty and menarche stages (bottom row).

a b c

Fig 5. Bacterial community composition of girls with >1% Gardnerella

Gardnerella vaginalis is oen associated with bacterial vaginosis (BV) in adults, but it was commonly found in the vaginal microbiota of girls in this study. Are different strains of G. vaginalis associated vaginal microbiota in healthy vs. BV conditions?

metagenomics & comparative genomics

G. vaginalis from adolescent girls

(this study)

G. vaginalis from women without BV

G. vaginalis from women with BV