Fig. 6
From: Chromosomally normal miscarriage is associated with vaginal dysbiosis and local inflammation
Cytokine expression according to vaginal microbiome grouping 1 and subgroupings 1 and 2. Non-Gardnerella, Lactobacillus spp. depleted samples (16/166) had significantly increased vaginal levels of inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, IL-1 β and IL-18 when compared to Lactobacillus spp. dominant samples (124/166). Gardnerella, Lactobacillus spp. depleted samples (26/166) had significantly increased IL-1 β when compared to Lactobacillus spp. dominant (a, *P values, Kruskal-Wallis test with post hoc Bonferroni correction and #P values, Mann-Whitney U test for non-Gardnerella versus Lactobacillus spp. dominant patients). Scatter plots representing the percentage of Lactobacillus spp. against the concentration of IL-18 (b), IL-1 β (c), TNF-α (d), IL-6 (e) and coloured according to different clinical outcomes with the 25th, median, and 75th centile of cytokine levels indicated. Lactobacillus spp. depleted samples had significantly increased levels of IL-1β and TNF-α compared to the Lactobacillus spp. dominated group (f). Increased inflammatory activation in the Lactobacillus spp. depleted samples could be largely attributed to non-Gardnerella dominated samples (g) and more specifically, high relative abundances of Streptococcus and Prevotella spp. (h). Data represented as a clustered bar chart with mean ± standard error of the mean for each cytokine by vaginal microbiome sub-grouping 1, n = 166 (a). The individual tables (f–h) illustrate the percentage of activated cytokines in each group. Activation was defined by cytokines expressed in the upper quartile. P values obtained by comparing activated versus non-activated cytokines using two-tailed Fisher’s exact test (f and g) and chi-squared test (h)