Lactobacillus Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Lactobacillus, including details on probiotics, digestion, diet, health, lactobacillus acidophilus.

Microbes on the human vaginal epithelium.

Hyman RW, Fukushima M, Diamond L, Kumm J, Giudice LC, Davis RW

Stanford Genome Technology Center and Departments of Biochemistry, Genetics, and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University, 855 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. rhyman@stanford.edu

Using solely a gene-based procedure, PCR amplification of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene coupled with very deep sequencing of the amplified products, the microbes on 20 human vaginal epithelia of healthy women have been identified and quantitated. The Lactobacillus content on these 20 healthy vaginal epithelia was highly variable, ranging from 0% to 100%. For four subjects, Lactobacillus was (virtually) the only bacterium detected. However, that Lactobacillus was far from clonal and was a mixture of species and strains. Eight subjects presented complex mixtures of Lactobacillus and other microbes. The remaining eight subjects had no Lactobacillus. Instead, Bifidobacterium, Gardnerella, Prevotella, Pseudomonas, or Streptococcus predominated.

Published 2 June 2005 in Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 102(22): 7952-7.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Lactobacillus Research Today. All Rights Reserved.