Association Between Vaginal Community States and Preeclampsia Status in Pregnant Individuals

Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe pregnancy complication affecting 3-8% of pregnancies. Recent evidence suggests the vaginal microbiome may influence PE risk. To investigate this, we reanalyzed publicly available 16S rRNA sequencing data (PRJNA798597) from vaginal samples of pregnant women with (n=10) and without PE (n=10) and assigned vaginal community state types which were previously uncharacterized. Overall microbial diversity did not differ significantly between groups; however, subtype differences in Lactobacillus spp. were observed. D-lactic acid-producing vaginal community state types were less common in PE, suggesting potential value for microbiome-based risk assessment.