Extended antimicrobial treatment of bacterial vaginosis combined with human lactobacilli to find the best treatment and minimize the risk of relapses

Table 2 Characterisation of vaginal Lactobacillus strains

PCR type strain	Species	Doubling time^a	Autoaggregation^b	H₂O₂ ^c	Hemolysis	Plasmid^e	Antibiotic resistance^f	Total score^g
23B33	L. crispatus	92 (1)	3	3	α	-	MZH, FX	7*
21M49	L. crispatus	91 (1)	3	2	α	-	MZH	6*
8R6	L. crispatus	83 (2)	3	0	α	-	MZH	5*
4R5	L. crispatus	109 (1)	3	0	α	-	MZH	4*
9M9	L. crispatus	102 (1)	1	2	α	-	MZH	4
13B2	L. crispatus	96 (1)	2	1	α	+	MZH	0
16B2	L. crispatus	113 (1)	2	1	α	+	MZH	0
18R5	L. crispatus	95 (1)	2	3	? ^d	-	MZH, FX	0
6M9	L. gasseri	69 (2)	3	1	α	-	MZH, FX	6*
6M8	L. gasseri	71 (2)	3	0	α	-	MZH, FX	5*
20M39	L. gasseri	68 (2)	0	1	α	-	MZH, FX	3*
20M37	L. gasseri	71 (2)	0	1	α	-	MZH, FX	3
16B1	L. gasseri	122 (0)	1	1	α	-	MZH, FX	2
7B3	L. gasseri	183 (0)	0	1	α	-	MZH	1
5M8	L. gasseri	77 (2)	3	1	α	+	MZH, FX	0
15M7	L. gasseri	68 (2)	1	0	α	+	MZH, FX	0
22B42	L. jensenii	85 (2)	3	2	α	-	MZH, FX	7*
12B1	L. jensenii	71 (2)	1	2	α	-	MZH, FX	5*

^a Doubling time: more than 120 min (score 0), between 90-120 min (score 1), between 60-90 min (score 2)
^bAutoaggregation: no aggregation (score 0), presence of flakes (score 1), sedimented flakes but cloudy supernatant (score 2), sedimented flakes and clear supernatant (score 3).
^c H₂O₂ production: strongly positive (score 3), intermediate positive (score 2) weakly positive (score 1), or negative (score 0) according to the intensity of blue colour development.
^d Slight lysis of human blood cells were observed for 18R5 when grown in anaerobiosis.
^e Presence (+) or absence (-) of plasmid
^f Antibiotics to which the Lactobacillus strains are resistant among the 10 tested. Metronidazole (MHZ), cefoxitin (FX).
^g Total score for a Lactobacillus strain is the sum of scores for doubling time, auto-aggregation and hydrogen peroxide production (max. value 8). Strains showing slight hemolysis (18R5) and presence of plasmid (5M8, 13B2, 15M7, 16B2) were scored 0.
*Strains with the highest score selected for the clinical trial.

ISSN: 1471-2334