2024 AIChE Annual Meeting
(27b) Developing an in Vitro platform to Model Cross-Kingdom Communication in the Female Reproductive Tract
An optimal human vaginal microbiome is unique amongst other organisms as it is dominated by a single species of Lactobacillus. These microbes reside in mucus produced by vaginal and cervical epithelial cells. Mucus serves as a nutrient source and growth matrix for vaginal bacteria. Despite the importance of mucus, many in vitro and in vivo models fail to provide an accurate representation of the vaginal environment. Accurate modeling of this mucosal barrier is particularly important for understanding microbe-host, host-microbe, and microbe-microbe interactions, as well as drug delivery technologies, in the female reproductive tract. Here, we describe a model system using cervicovaginal mucus collected from human participants. We describe techniques to eliminate existing microbes, maintain mucosal barrier properties, and introduce pathogens and other commensal bacteria into our system. This work shows that UV irradiation is not effective as a sterilization technique but heat based methods prove effective. The heat based methods do show some modification of barrier properties but are still able to support microbial growth. Our work will enable us to model bacterial growth in vitro in physiologically relevant conditions to better predict, prevent, and treat dysbiosis and microbiome-associated diseases.