The female upper reproductive tract harbors endogenous microbial 1 profiles

Our study included 24 women with confirmed fertility having benign uterine pathology submitted to abdominal hysterectomy or opting for contraceptive method by tubal ligation at Hospital Clinico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca de Murcia HCUVA.The microbiome of FT and endometrial samples was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We detected distinct microbial community profiles in the endometrial and FT samples indicating that the upper reproductive tract harbors an endogenous microbiome and in big part these two sites share the microbial profile . Nevertheless, 17 bacterial taxa were exclusively detected in the FT that included Enhydrobacter, Granulicatella, Haemophilus, Rhizobium, Alistipes y Paracoccus, among others, while 10 were found only in the endometrium, including Klebsiella, Olsenella, Oscillibacter and Veillonella. Further, our study shows that the endometrial collection method influences the findings, where Lactobacillus dominated in the samples obtained transcervically (vaginal contamination is suspected), while Acinetobacter, Arthrobacter, Coprococcus, Methylobacterium, Prevotella, Roseburia, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus were more abundant when sampling was performed directly from the uterus at hysterescopy. Although the upper reproductive tract seems to be a low microbial biomass site, our results suggest that the endometrial and FT microbiome is unique for each individual.