Abstract:
Background Persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection after cervical conization is the main factor in the progression of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) to cervical cancer, but the cause of persistent infection is unknown and needs to be further clarified.
Objective To analyze the correlation between preoperative cervical microecology and postoperative outcome, so as to find out the cause of postoperative persistent infection after cervical conization.
Methods The patients who underwent cervical conization for HSIL in the First Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from September 2020 to September 2021 were enrolled according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The clinical data and cervical secretions before conization were collected. According to the results of HR-HPV test at 3 months after conization, the patients were divided into three groups (HR-HPV negative group, persistent infection group and healthy HPV-negative control group), with 24 patients in each group. Nucleic acid extraction was performed at the same time, PCR amplification and sequencing were performed for V3 + V4 region of 16S rRNA. Effective data were analyzed, mainly by α and β diversity analysis, to compare the preoperative cervical microecological differences.
Results The abundance of cervical community was mainly lactobacillus at species level. α diversity showed that the bacterial community diversity in the persistent infection group was higher than that in the negative transition group (P=0.039), and that in the negative transition group was higher than that in the control group (P=0.037). β diversity analysis showed that the persistent infection group was similar to the HR-HPV negative transition group, the dominant bacteria were Firmcutes, which showed a difference with the control group. In the comprehensive analysis (MetaStat) of the three groups of data, streptococcus had the highest abundance among the bacteria with statistically significant differences (P=0.044).
Conclusion Lactobacillus is the dominant bacterium in the three groups at species level. Digestive streptococcus may be an important factor affecting the outcome of HPV after conization. HSIL and the postoperative outcome are closely related to the cervical microecology.