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The Next Frontier of Microbiome Transplants May Be the Vagina
Don’t try this at home
This story was updated on Oct. 7, 2019 to reflect new study data.
There is new research that proposes that the best way to treat a bacterial infection in one woman’s vagina might be to transplant bacteria from another woman’s vagina.
Our bodies are home to a diverse ecosystem of bacteria. Different body parts host different bacterial communities and require a specific balance of microbes to stay healthy. In the vagina, one strain reigns supreme: Lactobacillus. One theory as to why Lactobacilli are beneficial is that they produce lactic acid, keeping the vaginal pH relatively acidic and killing off most of the other types of bacteria. If Lactobacillus is usurped as the dominant strain, a type of inflammation called bacterial vaginosis (BV) sets in, and there’s an overgrowth of other kinds of bacteria.
“High diversity is very healthy in the gut. In the vagina, it’s the total opposite,” says Jacques Ravel, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland. “That’s what defines BV — it’s what they call a polymicrobial disease. That means you have many different microbes that you really don’t want to be there.”
