US-China vaginal microbiome differences challenge ‘one-size-fits-all’ health solutions

Findings underscore need for localised medical treatments rather than standardised care drawing on data largely from Western populations

Chinese scientists have uncovered differences between American and Chinese vaginal microbiomes, revealing that a bacterium closely linked to bacterial vaginosis and preterm birth is more prevalent and virulent in American women.

The study underscores the need for localised treatments and “fills a critical gap for Asian populations and provides a foundational platform for global vaginal microbiome research and microbe-host interaction studies”, according to the researchers.

The scientists said they had addressed a long-standing knowledge gap.

Previous understanding of these microbes was largely limited to data from Western populations, particularly their gut profiles, and the team has now developed the world’s most extensive genomic map of the female reproductive tract.

Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Genetics on Thursday after work dating to 2018, when they began collecting samples.

The researchers hail from the genome research organisation BGI-Research in China, as well as institutions including the Southern University of Science and Technology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing Institutes of Life Science and Fudan University.