Cervicovaginal Inflammatory Cytokines, Obesity and Inter-Pregnancy Interval Negatively Affect Pregnancy Duration in Pregnant Women at High-Risk for Recurrent Spontaneous Preterm Birth

Objectives: Evaluation of change of cervicovaginal fluid (CVF) cytokines’ levels during pregnancy and its relation to incidence of preterm birth (PTB). Patients & Methods: Pregnant women with history of PTB and cervical length α (TNF-α) and interleukins (IL)-6 and -10 levels. Study outcomes included differences in cytokines’ levels between samples and groups. Results: Sample-I cytokines’ levels were significantly higher in study than control women. Cytokines’ levels in Sample-II were significantly higher in control, while were significantly lower in study women compared to Sample-I. Sixteen study women had PTB and had significantly higher CVF levels of IL-10 and TNF-α estimated in both samples than women had no PTB. Pregnancy duration was negatively correlated with maternal body mass index (BMI) and cytokines’ levels, while was positively correlated with inter-pregnancy interval (IPI). Cytokines’ levels were positively correlated with BMI and negatively correlated with IPI. Short IPI and high TNF-α levels are negative predictors for pregnancy duration. Conclusion: High BMI, short IPI and high CVF inflammatory cytokines’ levels negatively affect pregnancy duration especially in women with history of recurrent PTB. Early prophylactic CC for women at high-risk of SPTB can modulate local immune disturbance, reduce incidence of SPTB and prolong pregnancy duration.

Development and Validation of Extraction Method for the Determination of UC781 in Cervicovaginal Fluid

Liquid chromatography plays the important and critical role in the field of clinical pharmacology of evaluating drugs in biological matrices. Studying antiretroviral drugs in the female genital tract has important implications for using drugs as a vaginal microbicide for prevention of HIV-1 sexual transmission. Accurate measurement of drug levels is extremely important in optimizing drug concentration in gel formulation. Extracting drugs from small volumes of viscous, proteinaceous substances like cervicovaginal fluid (CVF) is a practically challenging process. The proposed method was designed to introduce procedure for sample collection and drug extraction procedure for CVF matrix before the chromatographic separation. Based on this extraction method, we validated a reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry assay in order to quantify UC781 in female genital tract compartment. The LC-MS method was validated based on a novel extraction technique which proved to be efficient in reducing analyte degradation with an average extraction efficiency of 72%. This method is accurate, demonstrating an average accuracy over three QC (n = 30) concentrations ranging from 99.9% to 106.1%. Average precision within-day and between-day ranged from 3.1% to 10.2% and 5.1% to 6.4%, respectively. We demonstrated that the analyte was able to maintain its stability under various conditions using this extraction method. The sample preparation, extraction, and the powerful liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry can readily be applied for accurate quantification of similar drugs in CVF.

Cervicovaginal microbiome dynamics after taking oral probiotics

The vaginal microbiota is less complex than the gut microbiota,and the colonization of Lactobacillus in the female vagina is considered to be critical for reproductive health.Oral probiotics have been suggested as promising means to modulate vaginal homeostasis in the general population.In this study,60 Chinese women were followed for over a year before,during,and after treatment with the probiotics Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14.Shotgun metagenomic data of 1334 samples from multiple body sites did not support a colonization route of the probiotics from the oral cavity to the intestinal tract and then to the vagina.Our analyses enable the classification of the cervicovaginal microbiome into a stable state and a state of dysbiosis.The microbiome in the stable group steadily maintained a relatively high abundance of Lactobacilli over one year,which was not affected by probiotic intake,whereas in the dysbiosis group,the microbiota was more diverse and changed markedly over time.Data from a subset of the dysbiosis group suggests this subgroup possibly benefited from supplementation with the probiotics,indicating that probiotics supplementation can be prescribed for women in a subclinical microbiome setting of dysbiosis,providing opportunities for targeted and personalized microbiome reconstitution.

Assessment of the Microbiome Collected from the Reproductive Tracts of Women from Saudi Arabia and Its Potential Influence on Infertility

Background and Objective: Female infertility may be attributed to several causes that are fundamentally related to the health status of women. The main objective of this project was to correlate the abundance of the microbiota in cervicovaginal fluid to infertility. Materials & Methods: A total of 36 married women who voluntarily came to the hospital in Riyadh for a routine visit participated in the study. To collect the cervicovaginal liquid, a SoftcupTM menstrual device was used by the participant;the cup was then transported in a liquid nitrogen box to the laboratory for analysis. Results: The mean vaginal pH in normal women and infertile women was 3.96 and 5.06, respectively, and the difference between the two cohorts was significant (p 5.5, is primarily composed of G. vaginalis, P. anaerobius, Mycoplasma hominis, Mobiluncus species and Atopobium vaginae. The protein content and viscosity of the cervicovaginal liquid were significantly lower in infertile women compared to normal women (p < 0.05).