focused on the therapy of bacterial infections and delved into the mechanism of action. Solco continued to develop the formulation, during the course of which the new species Lactobacillus vaginalis was identified in 1989. In the same year, the Hamburg-based pharmaceutical company Strathmann GmbH & Co. KG. overtook production of the vaccines SolcoUrovac (now named Strovac) and SolcoTrichovac (now named Gynatren). 2012-today In 2012 Gynevac was withdrawn from the market, not due to any unexpected adverse effects, but rather due to Vakcina Kft. failing to obtain regulatory compliance upon the EU-accession of Hungary. Today Gynatren is the only lactobacillus vaccine marketed for the treatment of non-specific bacterial vaginitis and trichomoniasis, and it is mostly only prescribed by a select few gynaecologists in the DACH countries and Hungary. In Germany the vaccine may be covered by health insurance upon individual deliberation of the attending gynaecologist. Research Research interest in lactobacillus vaccines peaked in the 1980s. The technical and theoretical advances in the fields of microbiology, immunology and vaccinology of the past few decades could help shed new light on the still not fully clarified mode of action of these clinically promising vaccines. More research is warranted to elucidate the distinct properties of "aberrant" strains of Lactobacilli, the exact mechanism by which they contribute to or accompany pathologies, the determinants of colonization in different groups of individuals. A further point of interest is the specificity of the immune stimulation – whether vaccination induces cross-reacting antibodies with any other microorganism. A comparative study on lactobacillus heterovaccines like Gynatren and gynaecological autovaccines such as GynVaccine has yet to be performed. Lactobacillus strains used in the vaccines Characteristics It has not been clarified by what mechanism the lactobacilli used in the vaccines ("aberrant" lactobacilli) fail to confer protection against vaginal pathogens. At the time of invention, available knowledge of the various health-promoting mechanisms of lactobacilli was very limited. For example, Eschenbach's seminal work on -producing lactobacilli has not been published until 1989; at this point scientific efforts to clarify the vaccine's mechanism of action have already subsided. The nutrient medium, carbohydrate fermentation profile, and microscopic appearance of the strains used in SolcoTrichovac have been described. Growth on an iron-enriched medium of 0.12 mᴍ concentration of FeSO4·7H2O is rather unusual for a lactobacillus species, and resembles the nutrient needs of L. iners, a vaginal lactobacillus associated with bacterial vaginosis and preterm birth, known for its ambiguous