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In vitro characteristics of intravaginal Lactobacilli; why is L. iners detected in abnormal vaginal microbial flora?

  • General Gynecology
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Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Our purpose is to investigate the reasons why Lactobacillus iners is detected in abnormal vaginal microbial flora.

Methods

In this study, in vitro characteristics of four type strains (L. crispatus, L. iners, L. gasseri, and L. jensenii) were examined by measuring the growth speed by OD660, and acid resistance, with gram stain and Live/Dead stain.

Results

The growth speed was L. gasseri > L. jensenii > L. crispatus > L. iners. Bacterial counts of all Lactobacilli in MRS medium began to decrease at the middle of the log-phase of the growth curve. In addition, L. iners grew to 106 CFU/mL and the others grew to 108 CFU/mL. L. iners was mostly Gram-negative with very short rod, while the others were mostly Gram-positive rods. L. iners was completely killed in the pH 3 medium, however, the others grew (in pH 3 medium) in 1/100 order compared with those in the pH 6 medium.

Conclusion

L. iners was not a typical gram-positive long rod Lactobacilli and presented weak acid-resistance. The reasons why L. iners is detected in abnormal vaginal microbial flora were presumed to be due to the unique morphologic and microbiologic characteristics.

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Funding

The author received no specific funding for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wakamatsu Hospital of University of Occupational and Environmental Health, 1-17-1, Hamamachi, Wakamatsu-ku, Kitakyushu, 808-0024, Japan

    Kazuaki Yoshimura

  2. Department of Microbiology, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan

    Midori Ogawa & Mitsumasa Saito

Authors
  1. Kazuaki Yoshimura
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  2. Midori Ogawa
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  3. Mitsumasa Saito
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Contributions

KY: project development, data collection, and manuscript writing/editing; MO and MS: project development. All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by KY and MO. The first draft of the manuscript was written by KY and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kazuaki Yoshimura.

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Yoshimura, K., Ogawa, M. & Saito, M. In vitro characteristics of intravaginal Lactobacilli; why is L. iners detected in abnormal vaginal microbial flora?. Arch Gynecol Obstet 302, 671–677 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-020-05634-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-020-05634-y

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