Introduction

The normal vagina is colonizes predominantly by Lactobacillus which are believed to afford protection against microbial pathogens. De-population of lactobacilli from normal vaginal flora and over-growth of Gardnerella vaginalis (GV) and other anaerobic species including Bacteroides bivius, B. disieus, Porphyromonas species and Mycoplasma hominis is reported to results in bacterial vaginosis (BV) ^{1, 2, 3}. That GV is particularly associated with BV has been reported ^{4, 5} .

The involvement of microorganisms in infertility and pregnancy associated problems has long been widely described ^{6,7,8,9,10,11,12}. Although some workers have reported isolation of GV from semen samples¹³, its actual involvement in infertility and or pregnancy-related complications has not yet been very explicitly highlighted. This study attempts to determine the possible effect of GV on infertility and pregnancy complications in albino rats.

Materials And Methods

Selection of albino rats

Infection and Mating of albino rats

Determination of the effect of on gravid rats

Ethical Consideration

Results And Discussion

The result of the study showed that the mating of matured female rats infected with 0.02ml of Gardnerella vaginalis (GV) containing 10⁵ CFU/mL, with matured male rats similarly infected with GV resulted in reduction in the number of impregnation, offsprings borne and the survival rate compared with the control rats. The same was observed for the infected matured female rats mated with matured healthy male rats (Table1).

The drastic reduction in the number of impregnations from 100% in the control group to 60-80% in the infected rats tend to suggest that GV infection may have some association with the infertility of the studied rats. Previous studies have associated microbial infections with cases of infertility. A significantly high incidence of genital infection was reported among male patients with idiopathic infertility than their fertile controls ⁸. Also, two separate researches reported the isolation of Ureaplasma urealyticum, Atophobium vaginae, and GV, involved in the aetiology of BV, respectively from infertile men with oligospermia and a 39 year old woman with tubarian sterility ^6,11 . Similar findings have also been reported by other workers^10,12 .

It is apparent from the result of this work that infection with GV could pose untoward effect on the formation of fetus and survival of the new borne rats. Although the definite effect of this organism in human subject is yet to be elaborated, it is very likely to pose serious challenges, going by the presentation in the albino rats studied. This obviously demands further clarification to determine the probable role of this organism in infertility in humans.

This study also revealed that 20% of the GV infected gravid rats had abortion and at least two offsprings delivered per mother were feeble/underweight (Table 2). This observation supports earlier findings that microbial infections are incriminated in causing sporadic spontaneous abortion⁷ . It further corroborates other previous reports in which GV has also been associated with preterm birth, preterm rupture of membrane, chorioamnionitis and amniotic infection^14,15 .

Generally, it does appear that the probable role of GV infection in infertility and pregnancy may not be contrary to the established adverse effects of sexually transmitted infections(STI). This calls for special attention since hitherto, GV have not been among the targeted organisms suspected to be critical in infertility and pregnancy complications. This study therefore underscores the urgent need for further research on the role of GV in infertility and pregnancy in both experimental models and human subjects.

Figure 1

Table 1: Delivery and survival pattern of the offsprings of rats infected with

Figure 2

Table 2: Delivery and survival pattern of the offsprings of pregnant rats infected with