Altered Composition of Microbiota in Women with Ovarian Endometrioma: Microbiome Analyses of Extracellular Vesicles in the Peritoneal Fluid

Sa Ra Lee, Jae-Chul Lee, Jae‐Chul Lee, Sung-Hoon Kim, Sung Hoon Kim, Young-Sang Oh, Hee Dong Chae, Hochan Seo, Chil-Sung Kang, Tae-Seop Shin
International journal of molecular sciences · 2021 · vol. 22(9) , pp. 4608 · doi:10.3390/ijms22094608 · PMID:33925708 · W3157677945
article OA: gold CC0 ⤵ 26 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This study found altered bacterial composition in extracellular vesicles from peritoneal fluid of women with ovarian endometrioma compared to controls, with increased abundance of Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Streptococcus, and Enhydrobacter.

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Abstract

Human microbiota refers to living microorganisms which colonize our body and crucially contribute to the metabolism of nutrients and various physiologic functions. According to recently accumulated evidence, human microbiota dysbiosis in the genital tract or pelvic cavity could be involved in the pathogenesis and/or pathophysiology of endometriosis. We aimed to investigate whether the composition of microbiome is altered in the peritoneal fluid in women with endometriosis. We recruited 45 women with histological evidence of ovarian endometrioma and 45 surgical controls without endometriosis. Following the isolation of extracellular vesicles from peritoneal fluid samples from women with and without endometriosis, bacterial genomic DNA was sequenced using next-generation sequencing of the 16S rDNA V3–V4 regions. Diversity analysis showed significant differences in the microbial community at phylum, class, order, family, and genus levels between the two groups. The abundance of Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, Streptococcus, and Enhydrobacter significantly increased while the abundance of Propionibacterium, Actinomyces, and Rothia significantly decreased in the endometriosis group compared with those in the control group (p < 0.05). These findings strongly suggest that microbiome composition is altered in the peritoneal environment in women with endometriosis. Further studies are necessary to verify whether dysbiosis itself can cause establishment and/or progression of endometriosis.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisendometrioma

MeSH descriptors

Ascitic Fluid Endometriosis Extracellular Vesicles Adult Ascitic Fluid Ascitic Fluid Bacteria Bacteria Case-Control Studies DNA, Bacterial DNA, Bacterial Dysbiosis Dysbiosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Extracellular Vesicles Extracellular Vesicles Female High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (34)

Cited by (26)

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