• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Rectal bacteria may lower vaginal infection risk

Posted on: Monday, 15 August 2005, 14:28 CDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The presence of a specific type of bacteria in the rectum appears to reduce the risk of vaginal infections, researchers report.

"The gut has been seen as a site which harbors pathogens, which can cause vaginal infection, principal investigator Dr. Sharon L. Hillier of the University of Pittsburgh commented. These findings are the "first to document that the lower gastrointestinal tract can also harbor the lactobacilli, which are beneficial for vaginal health."

"Further," she told Reuters Health, "when women harbor these organisms in the gut, they have a reservoir for replenishing vaginal lactobacilli should they decrease following sexual exposure or douching."

As they report in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Hillier and her colleagues studied vaginal and rectal swabs obtained from 531 women and recovered lactobacilli from the vagina of 74 percent and the rectum of 51 percent.

Overall, 80 percent of the women had evidence of lactobacilli in the vagina, or in the vagina and the rectum. Most women (67 percent) had lactobacilli that produced hydrogen peroxide.

The absence of hydrogen peroxide-producing lactobacilli in the vagina is associated with an increased risk of bacterial vaginosis, which is associated with higher concentrations of HIV in women with this infection and higher rates of preterm birth in pregnant women, the investigators explain.

Conversely, the presence in the vagina of lactobacilli that produce high levels of hydrogen peroxide is associated with lower rates of bacterial vaginosis and certain pregnancy complications.

Hillier and her associates speculated that the presence of rectal lactobacilli may help maintain the healthy balance of normal vaginal flora and that this, in turn, is associated with a lower rate of the adverse effects of bacterial vaginosis.

The most common types of rectal hydrogen peroxide-producing lactobacilli were Lactobacillus crispatus (16 percent), L. jensenii (10 percent) and L. gasseri (10 percent).

Only 13 (9 percent) of the 147 women with vaginal, or rectal and vaginal L. crispatus or L. jensenii had bacterial vaginosis compared with 12 (44 percent) of those with other hydrogen peroxide-producing lactobacilli.

The lowest prevalence of bacterial vaginosis (5 percent) was seen in women with vaginal and rectal hydrogen peroxide-producing lactobacilli. Those who had only vaginal, only rectal, or no lactobacilli at either site, had an increased risk of vaginosis.

The researchers add that the dairy-related lactobacilli, L. acidophilus and L. delbrueckii bulgaricus, were not seen either rectally or vaginally, and that it is possible that L. crispatus and L. jensenii "may be better suited to probiotic use."

SOURCE: The Journal of Infectious Diseases, August 1, 2005.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category