Publication
Comparison of vaginal microbiota sampling techniques: Cytobrush versus swab
Publisher:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:
29-08-2017
DOI:
10.1038/S41598-017-09844-4
Abstract: Evidence suggests the vaginal microbiota (VM) may influence risk of persistent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection and cervical carcinogenesis. Established cytology biobanks, typically collected with a cytobrush, constitute a unique resource to study such associations longitudinally. It is plausible that compared to rayon swabs the most commonly used s ling devices, cytobrushes may disrupt biofilms leading to variation in VM composition. Cervico-vaginal s les were collected with cytobrush and rayon swabs from 30 women with high-grade cervical precancer. Quantitative PCR was used to compare bacterial load and Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the V1-V3 regions of the 16S rRNA gene used to compare VM composition. Cytobrushes collected a higher total bacterial load. Relative abundance of bacterial species was highly comparable between s ling devices (R 2 = 0.993). However, in women with a Lactobacillus -depleted, high- ersity VM, significantly less correlation in relative species abundance was observed between devices when compared to those with a Lactobacillus species-dominant VM (p = 0.0049). Cytobrush and swab s ling provide a comparable VM composition. In a small proportion of cases the cytobrush was able to detect underlying high- ersity community structure, not realized with swab s ling. This study highlights the need to consider s ling devices as potential confounders when comparing multiple studies and datasets.