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Relationship between vitamin D status and the vaginal microbiome during pregnancy

Abstract

Objective

Evidence supports an inverse association between vitamin D and bacterial vaginosis (BV) during pregnancy. Furthermore, both the vaginal microbiome and vitamin D status correlate with pregnancy outcome. Women of African ancestry are more likely to experience BV, to be vitamin D deficient, and to have certain pregnancy complications. We investigated the association between vitamin D status and the vaginal microbiome.

Study design

Subjects were assigned to a treatment (4400 IU) or a control group (400 IU vitamin D daily), sampled three times during pregnancy, and vaginal 16S rRNA gene taxonomic profiles and plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations were examined.

Result

Gestational age and ethnicity were significantly associated with the microbiome. Megasphaera correlated negatively (p = 0.0187) with 25(OH)D among women of African ancestry. Among controls, women of European ancestry exhibited a positive correlation between plasma 25(OH)D and L. crispatus abundance.

Conclusion

Certain vaginal bacteria are associated with plasma 25(OH)D concentration.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded in part from a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and by the South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research (SCTR) Institute, with an academic home at the Medical University of South Carolina, NIH/NCAT Grant number UL1 TR000062. This work was also supported by National Institutes of Health [grant U54 DE023786 “A Multi-‘omic Analysis of the Vaginal Microbiome during Pregnancy”]. All sequencing and analysis of sequence data were performed in the Genomics Core of the Nucleic Acids Research Facilities at VCU.

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Jefferson, K.K., Parikh, H.I., Garcia, E.M. et al. Relationship between vitamin D status and the vaginal microbiome during pregnancy. J Perinatol 39, 824–836 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-019-0343-8

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