{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T12:04:05Z","timestamp":1777637045700,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777420800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100015763","name":"Szegedi Tudom\u00e1nyegyetem","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100015763","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"\n Introduction<\/jats:title>\n \n Infertility affects 15\u201320% of couples, with 3% of Hungarian children conceived through\n in vitro<\/jats:italic>\n fertilization (IVF). Predicting IVF outcomes before treatment initiation remains challenging. Emerging evidence suggests that the vaginal and seminal microbiota influence reproductive health by modulating local immunity, implantation, and gamete function. This study aimed to evaluate associations between baseline clinical, biochemical, and microbiological parameters and IVF outcomes.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Material and methods<\/jats:title>\n \n We conducted a retrospective, single-center cohort study including 475 couples undergoing IVF with or without intracytoplasmic sperm injection at the University of Szeged (January 2022\u2013December 2023). Data collection encompassed maternal demographics, reproductive history, baseline hormone levels, ovarian stimulation characteristics, and endometrial thickness. The results of microbiological cultures of vaginal discharge and semen samples, including\n Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>\n colonization, pathogen distribution, and the antibiotic resistance status of the pathogens, were recorded. The primary outcome was clinical pregnancy. Machine learning models, including support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) were applied, to explore the predictive value of combined clinical and microbial features for IVF outcome.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n Positive vaginal cultures were identified in 121 women (25.5%), most commonly\n Candida albicans<\/jats:italic>\n (26%),\n Streptococcus agalactiae<\/jats:italic>\n (17%), and\n Escherichia coli<\/jats:italic>\n (17%) among the positive cases. Among 134 men (29%) with positive semen cultures,\n Enterococcus faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n (46%) and\n Escherichia coli<\/jats:italic>\n (23%) predominated. Single-organism growth predominated, and pathogen overlap between partners was rare (13 couples, &lt;3%). Vaginal\n Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>\n presence negatively correlated with several pathogens, including\n Candida albicans<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Streptococcus agalactiae<\/jats:italic>\n ,\n Gardnerella vaginalis<\/jats:italic>\n , and\n Enterococcus faecalis<\/jats:italic>\n . Clinical pregnancy rates were similar between women with positive and negative vaginal cultures (36% vs. 39%, n.s.). Machine learning analyses showed that maternal age remained the dominant predictor, while microbial data contributed modestly, with\n Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>\n consistently emerging as the most relevant microbial feature.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n \n Vaginal and seminal microbial alterations are common among couples undergoing IVF, yet true pathogen overlap between partners was minimal.\n Lactobacillus<\/jats:italic>\n colonization demonstrated a clear protective association, supporting its potential as a biomarker for reproductive success. Although microbial features alone are insufficient to predict IVF outcomes, integrating microbial profiles with established clinical parameters could inform personalized fertility management.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2026.1747088","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T06:00:56Z","timestamp":1777442456000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Retrospective comparative analysis of pre-IVF vaginal and semen microbiological cultures in infertile couples highlights absence of microbial concordance"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Anna","family":"V\u00e1gv\u00f6lgyi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine, Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi Medical School, University of Szeged","place":["Szeged, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bernadett","family":"N\u00e1dasdi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine, Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi Medical School, University of Szeged","place":["Szeged, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Petra Lilla","family":"Z\u00e1dori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine, Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi Medical School, University of Szeged","place":["Szeged, Hungary"]},{"name":"Center of Reproductive Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi Medical School, University of Szeged","place":["Szeged, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rita","family":"Sinka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Genetics, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged","place":["Szeged, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Katalin","family":"Buri\u00e1n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Microbiology, Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi Health Center and Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi Medical School, University of Szeged","place":["Szeged, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Viktor","family":"Vedelek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Genetics, Faculty of Science and Informatics, University of Szeged","place":["Szeged, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"J\u00e1nos","family":"Z\u00e1dori","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Microbiology, Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi Health Center and Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi Medical School, University of Szeged","place":["Szeged, Hungary"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1111\/aji.70108","volume-title":"Vaginal Microbiome Dominated by Lactobacillus Positively Impacts Clinical Pregnancy in Patients With Frozen Embryo Transfers","author":"Alley","year":"2025"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms25179168","article-title":"Protective mechanisms of vaginal lactobacilli against sexually transmitted viral infections","volume":"25","author":"Avitabile","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int. 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