Diversity of cervicovaginal microbiota associated with XXXX .

@entity1 @entity5860 @entity3799 @entity6981
The female genital tract (FGT) harbors very large numbers of bacterial species that are known to play an important role on vaginal health. Previous studies have focused on bacterial diversity in the vagina, but little is known about the ectocervical microbiota associated with @entity5860 . In our study, vaginal swabs and ectocervical swabs were collected from 100 @entity1 in China, including 30 @entity1 with @entity6981 ( @entity6981 ; @entity6981 group), 22 @entity1 with @entity3799 (Cer group), 18 @entity1 with @entity6981 in combination with @entity3799 (BC group) and 30 healthy control @entity1 (CN group). The diversity and richness of cervicovaginal microbiota were investigated with culture-independent polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and quantitative PCR (qPCR) targeting 11 microorganisms that have been associated with @entity5860 . Despite significant interpersonal variations, the PCR-DGGE profiles revealed that vaginal microbiota and ectocervical microbiota were clearly much more complex in the @entity6981 group, while the ectocervical microbiota showed no significant difference between healthy and diseased @entity1 . Using species-specific qPCR, @entity6981 and @entity3799 were significantly associated with a dramatic decrease in Lactobacillus species (p   <   0.05), and potential pathogenic species such as Gardnerella, Atopobium, Eggerthella, Leptotrichia/Sneathia, and Prevotella were more common and in higher copy numbers in @entity6981 than in CN samples (p values ranged from 0.000 to 0.021). No significant differences were observed between healthy and @entity3799 samples (p   >   0.05) in ectocervical microbiota. The total numbers of bacteria were significantly lower in the ectocervix as compared in the vagina (p   <   0.05). Intriguingly, vaginal microbiota from @entity1 with @entity6981 in combination with @entity3799 was quite different from that of @entity1 with @entity6981 or @entity3799 alone. Our study demonstrated that the cervicovaginal microbiota was actively involved in the process of @entity5860 . The predominant bacteria of the cervicovaginal communities were clearly associated with @entity6981 ; however, there was not sufficient evidence that the ectocervical microbiota is directly involved in the development of @entity3799 .
