Researchers inspired by the success of faecal transplants have tried the same thing with vaginal fluid, to see if it could treat bacterial vaginosis.
The transplants were a true success, with healthy vaginal fluids from a donor transplanted into recipient’s vaginas in a world-first vaginal microbiota transplant.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, was led by Dr Ahinoam Lev-Sagie from the Hadassah Medical Centre and the Faculty of Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Professor Eran Elinav from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
The donor selection process was similar to that used in blood donation – stringent.
Five women with severe, chronic BV underwent the transplants and were followed for two years. Four out of the five women experienced long-term remission – cure – with marked improvement of clinical and laboratory features. The lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiome was re-established. In the fifth woman, partial remission was observed.
In two cases, just a single transplant induced long-lasting and complete remission. In two other cases, repeat transplants from the same donor resulted in complete or partial remission.
A fifth patient required a change in donor to achieve complete and long-lasting remission.
Comprehensive analysis of the microbiome of the donors and recipients throughout the process showed the dramatic changes in the recipients’ microbiome, which turned towards that of the healthy donor.
See the Jerusalem Post article. The researchers are International Society for the Study (ISSVD) of Vulvovaginal Disease members.
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