Table 1.
Demographic and symptomatic characteristics of study participants at the time of first vaginal swab collection.
Fig 1.
Composition of vaginal microbiota by menopausal status and IBD diagnosis.
Stacked bar plots indicating the bacterial relative abundance of the 20 most prevalent taxa in the vaginal microbiota in 122 samples from 80 women. Samples were stratified according to menopausal status. The order of samples in the stacked bar plot is determined by hierarchical clustering (see heatmap in S1 Fig). Inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis status is shown above each sample.
Fig 2.
Comparison of community composition.
Principal Coordinates Analysis was used to compare beta-diversity of samples. Figures are colored by (a) inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis, and b) dominant species. For this analysis a single swab was randomly selected for each participant (n = 80).
Fig 3.
Comparison of community diversity.
Shannon Diversity Index was used to compare alpha diversity by inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis, stratified by menopausal status. Gastrointestinal symptom severity was assigned using either the Harvey Bradshaw Index (Crohn’s) or Simple Clinical Colitis Assessment (Ulcerative Colitis). For this analysis a single swab was randomly selected for each participant (n = 80).
Fig 4.
Comparison of Lactobacillus dominance.
The number and proportion of samples dominated by Lactobacillus iners, non-iners Lactobacillus or non-Lactobacillus species was compared by inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis, stratified by menopause. A sample was considered Lactobacillus dominant if > 40% of sequences were from Lactobacillus, and considered L. iners dominant if > 50% of all Lactobacillus sequences were from L. iners. For this analysis a single random sample was selected for each participant (n = 80).
Table 2.
Association between inflammatory bowel disease diagnosis or severity and Lactobacillus dominance, across all swabs, in premenopausal women.
Fig 5.
Change in community diversity and gastrointestinal symptom severity.
For the 26 participants with inflammatory bowel disease who contributed more than one swab, we compared symptom severity between visits and assigned each interval as “improved”, “stable” or “worsened.” The change in Shannon Diversity Index across the same interval was compared between the three categories.