ArticleMicrobiome2018
Increased richness and diversity of the vaginal microbiota and spontaneous preterm birth.
Article in Microbiome, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 122 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
122 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 208 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes associated withBMJ open · 2022Pooled it
- Associations between Nugent-bacterial vaginosis and preterm birth and other adverse pregnancy outcomes in rural northwestern Bangladesh.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2026Trial
- Oral Microbiome Characteristics in Patients With Autoimmune Hepatitis.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2021Trial
- Cervicovaginal microbiome and natural history of HPV in a longitudinal study.PLoS pathogens · 2020Trial
- The cervicovaginal gut microbiota axis as a key determinant of systemic physiology.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Interpretable deep neural network identifies robust biomarkers for diseases with mechanistic insights from omics data.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2026Article
- The Pathophysiology of Spontaneous Preterm Birth: Emerging Mechanisms Reviewed by the Preterm Birth International Collaborative.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2026Review
- Cohort Profile: The Ontario Birth Study (OBS).International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Complement and neutrophils are actively involved at the cervicovaginal interface in cases of adverse microbial composition, cervical shortening and spontaneous preterm birth.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Association of vaginal microbiome, cytokines, and spontaneous preterm birth among Chinese women: a nested case-control study.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- A microbiota-host axis mediates prostaglandin sensitivity: Lactobacillus crispatus as a biomarker and regulator of human labor induction.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- The vaginal microbiome in pregnancy and preterm birth: mechanisms, disparities, and therapeutic opportunities.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Review
- Underexplored maternal microbiomes: immune, metabolic, and microbial pathways shaping pregnancy outcomes.Infection and immunity · 2026Review
- Alterations of the oral mycobiome in patients with CCA.BMC oral health · 2026Article
- The vaginal bacteriome of pregnant Rwandan and Kenyan women, unique regional genera associations with preterm birth.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Optimising Vaginal Microbiome Profiling for Clinical Translation: A Comparative Assessment of Sample Storage Methods and a Vagina-Specific 16S rRNA Gene Database.Microorganisms · 2026Article
- Integrated metagenomic and metabolomic profiling of spontaneous preterm birth in Chinese women.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Stool and vaginal microbiome profiles patterns among Black and White endometrial cancer survivors: A pilot study in North Carolina.PloS one · 2026Article
- Vaginal microbiota in assisted reproduction: determinants, dynamics, and impact on clinical outcomes.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Gestational Weight Gain and Different Degrees of Preterm Birth: A Hospital-Based Study in Chinese Singleton Pregnancies.Nursing open · 2025Observational
62 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe bacterial community present in the female lower genital tract plays an important role in maternal and neonatal health. Imbalances in this microbiota have been associated with negative reproductive outcomes, such as spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB), but the mechanisms underlying the association between a disturbed microbiota and sPTB remain poorly understood. An intrauterine infection ascending from the vagina is thought to be an important contributor to the onset of preterm labour. Our objective was to characterize the vaginal microbiota of pregnant women who had sPTB (n = 46) and compare to those of pregnant women who delivered at term (n = 170). Vaginal swabs were collected from women at 11-16 weeks of gestational age. Microbiota profiles were created by PCR amplification and pyrosequencing of the cpn60 universal target region.
resultsProfiles clustered into seven community state types: I (Lactobacillus crispatus dominated), II (Lactobacillus gasseri dominated), III (Lactobacillus iners dominated), IVA (Gardnerella vaginalis subgroup B or mix of species), IVC (G. vaginalis subgroup A dominated), IVD (G. vaginalis subgroup C dominated) and V (Lactobacillus jensenii dominated). The microbiota of women who experienced preterm birth (< 37 weeks gestation) had higher richness and diversity and higher Mollicutes prevalence when compared to those of women who delivered at term. The two groups did not cluster according to CST, likely because CST assignment is driven in most cases by the dominance of one particular species, overwhelming the contributions of more rare taxa. In conclusion, we did not identify a specific microbial community structure that predicts sPTB, but differences in microbiota richness, diversity and Mollicutes prevalence were observed between groups.
conclusionsAlthough a causal relationship remains to be determined, our results confirm previous reports of an association between Mollicutes and sPTB and further suggest that a more diverse microbiome may be important in the pathogenesis of some cases.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.