Focusing on the most abundant vaginal bacterial taxa across all three visits and the cytokines that were significantly associated with BV clearance (including TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-8, LIF, GM-CSF), we determined whether the observed alterations in cytokine concentrations post-treatment were associated with relative abundance of any specific bacterial taxa (Figure 5A). This evidence concerns the gene CSF2 and bacterial vaginosis.