The Value of Vaginal Microbiome in Patients with Endometrial Hyperplasia

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the profiles of the vaginal microbiome in patients with endometrial hyperplasia and to explore the potential value of vaginal microbiome in the diagnosis of endometrial hyperplasia. Materials/Methods. 26 patients suffering from abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) with thickened endometrium revealed by transvaginal ultrasonography were enrolled. Based on pathology, 12 patients with endometrial hyperplasia were classified as the Veh group and 14 patients with proliferative endometrium were classified as the Vne group. The vaginal samples were collected for the presence of microbial DNA by high-throughput next-generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The α-diversity and ß-diversity of vaginal microbiome were analyzed and compared between bacterial populations. The ROC curve was made to evaluate the feasibility of flora as a biomarker. Results. The diversity of vaginal microbiome in the Veh group was significantly lower than that in the Vne group ( $P<0.05$ ). Lactobacillus was the most represented genus in the Veh group. The study’s t-test between the two groups showed that Lactobacillus has the only significant difference in the abundance of the first 15 genera ( $P<0.01$ ). ROC analysis of the abundance of Lactobacillus showed that the area of AUC was 0.83, the sensitivity was 93.00%, and the specificity was 75.00%. Conclusion. The study offers insight into the nature of the vaginal microbiome and suggests that surveying the vaginal microbiota might be useful for detection of endometrial hyperplasia.