Table 2.

Microbiome changes in human female patients and animal models of endometriosis.

Genital tract microbiom				Gut microbiome
Sample source/type	Detection technique	Results	Reference	Sample source/tpye	Detection technique	Results	Reference
sample of lower and upper genital tract/human	16S rRNA amplicon sequencing	in relation to hysteromyoma Lactobacillus sp. were found to be more abundant in the samples of control group, while L. iners was more abundant in the patient group	Chen et al. 2017	fresh stool samples/human	16S rRNA gene amplifcation	Shigella and Escherichia dominant stool microbiome in severe EMS	Ata et al. 2019
endometrial and cystic fluid samples/human	16S rDNA and sequence analysis	Enterobacteriaceae and Streptococcus spp. were significantly overrepresented in EMS samples compared to the healthy controls	Khan et al. 2016	faeces and peritoneal macrophage collection/mice	16S V4 gene region amplification; hematoxylin-eosin and immunofluorescent staining	Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes ratio was elevated in EMS mice	Yuan et al. 2018
vaginal fluid, eutopic endometrium and endometriotic lesion tissue samples/human	16S rRNA amplicon sequencing	the microbial diversity of the endometriotic lesion had a higher diversity which had shifted towards Alishewanella, Enterococcus, Ureaplasma and Pseudomonas	Hernandes et al. 2020
rectal and vaginal samples/human	16S rRNA amplicon sequencing	vaginal microbiome (e.g. Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes, Anaerococcus, Lactobacillus alterations) was predictive of endometriosis rASRM stages	Perrotta et al. 2020	faeces sample/mice; eutopic endometrium and endometriotic lesions	16S rRNA gene amplifcation; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay	broad-spectrum antibiotic that reduced the size of endometriotic lesions; gut microbiome may promote inflammation in EMS	Chadchan et al. 2019
vaginal and endometrial smear samples/human	bacterial vaginosis scores in Gram-stained vaginal samples, immunhistological test, measure of intra-vaginal pH	Lactobacillacae, Streptococcaceae, Staphylococaceae and Enterobacteriaceae were significantly increased in EMS samples compared to the control group of samples	Khan et al. 2014
vaginal and endocervical swab samples/human	16S rRNA gene amplifcation	absence of Atopobium genus in the vaginal and cervical microbiota in severe EMS	Ata et al. 2019	fresh faecal sample/Macaca mulatta	microflora cultivation on different types of agar	lowered Lactobacillus and higher Gram-negative bacteria ration in EMS samples	Bailey and Coe 2002