Six Gardnerella vaginalis strains were examined for the ability to utilize various iron-containing compounds as iron sources. In a plate bioassay, all six strains acquired iron from ferrous chloride, ferric chloride, ferrous sulfate, ferric ammonium citrate, ferrous ammonium sulfate, bovine and equine hemin, bovine catalase, and equine, bovine, rabbit, and human hemoglobin. All six strains also...

Strain-specific circulating immunoglobulin G and/or M was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunofluorescence test by using Formol-treated suspensions of Gardnerella vaginalis from 28 women with overt vaginitis but only three symptom-free subjects among 43 otherwise healthy women found to be colonized by G. vaginalis. Analogous but less stringent strain specificity patterns wer...

The clinical significance, Gram stain reaction, and genus affiliation of Gardnerella vaginalis have been controversial since Gardner and Dukes described the organism as the cause of "nonspecific vaginitis," a common disease of women which is now called bacterial vaginosis. The organism was named G. vaginalis when taxonomic studies showed that it was unrelated to bacteria in various genera inclu...