Reconnoitering correlation between human papillomavirus infection-induced vaginal microecological abnormality and squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL) progression

Abstract

Abstract Objective This study aims to investigate the relationship between abnormal vaginal microecology and human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, as well as the squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) progression. Methods A total of 383 patients diagnosed with HPV infection in our hospital between March 2017 and February 2022 were selected as the experimental group. In addition, several volunteers (n = 898) who underwent physical examination during the same period were randomly selected as the control group. Subsequently, we conducted several investigations, such as HPV detection and gene typing, examined vaginal microecological imbalances, and performed cytological examinations to analyze the correlation between microecological changes, different types of HPV infection, and SIL progression. Results HPV detection primarily included single and high-risk types of HPV infections. Moreover, significant disparities in the vaginal microecological environment between patients with persistent HPV infection and the control group, as well as patients with low-grade and high-grade SIL (LSIL and HSIL), were observed. The regression analysis revealed a correlation between LSIL and microflora density, diversity, bacteriological vaginosis (BV), vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), trichomonas vaginalis (TV), sialidase, as well as Lactobacillus. In addition, we identified an association between HSIL and pH, flora density, diversity, BV, VVC, candida vaginitis (CV), leukocyte esterase, catalase, and Lactobacillus levels. Conclusion These findings revealed a significant association between abnormal vaginal microecology and both HPV infection and the SIL progression.

Keywords

• Vaginal microecology
• High-risk human papillomavirus
• Low-risk human papillomavirus
• Low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion
• High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion