GARDNERELLA VAGINALIS STRAIN DEPENDENT GROWTH AND CYTOTOXICITY IN HUMAN MONOCYTES

Abstract

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most prevalent vaginal infection for women of reproductive age, characterized by a lack of normal commensal bacteria and a proliferation of pathogenic species. BV infections can lead to sterility, pelvic inflammatory disease, increased chance of HIV transmission, and preterm delivery. Gardnerella vaginalis has been found in many cases of BV, although G. vaginalis has been isolated in women exhibiting no diagnostic criteria. The goal of this study was to examine the growth kinetics and cytotoxicity of different Gardnerella vaginalis strains, which may provide important information in identifying growth conditions of asymptomatic BV. G. vaginalis comparison studies utilized strains 14018, 14019, and 49145, and were grown in pure bacterial culture in brain-heart infusion (BHI) and in Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) medium, or co-cultured with undifferentiated or differentiated human monocyte cells (THP-1) in RPMI. Significant differences in growth were noted among all strains in BHI and RPMI (p < 0.05). Further experiments showed that there is a significant difference in the cytotoxicity of the strains when in co-culture with THP-1 cells (p < 0.01), and may be attributed to either different growth patterns and metabolic proteins, or possibly due to further genetic differences found among virulence factors. In silico analysis of the three strains was done to provide supporting information relevant to the growth differences. The results of this study may contribute to a better understanding of how the genetic differences found within the different strains of Gardnerella vaginalis correlate with differences BV.