BACKGROUND The female genital tract constitutes a reservoir for HIV providing active production of both cell-free HIV RNA and cell-associated DNA within the cervicovaginal secretions. The objective of this study was to prospectively assess residual HIV-1 RNA and HIV-1 DNA production in the genital tract reservoir of women initiating HAART over an 18-month period. METHODS Paired blood and cerv...

objective: this study was conducted in order to assess the prevalence of different cervicovaginal infections during pregnancy. materials and methods: totally 110 healthy pregnant women with complaints of vaginal symptoms in their third trimester of pregnancy were checked for vaginal candidiasis, bacterial vaginosis, vaginal trichomoniasis, streptococcus β hemoliticus, gonorrhea, syphilis, and i...

background: infertility is one of the common problems seen in couples of reproductive age. presence of antisperm antibodies in semen and serum are amongst the causes of immunoinfertility. this study was performed to determine antisperm antibodies in cervicovaginal secretions and serum of infertile women and also measure serum levels of immunoglobulins (igg, igm and iga). methods: the study cons...

OBJECTIVE To assess the predictive value of quantitative fetal fibronectin (fFN) concentration in cervicovaginal fluid for spontaneous preterm birth in women with bulging fetal membranes. STUDY DESIGN This was a prospective observational study from five UK tertiary centres of a cohort of women with singleton pregnancy and bulging fetal membranes presenting between 18 and 32 weeks of gestation...

P-glycoprotein (P-gp), breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), and multidrug resistance protein 4 (MRP4) are three efflux transporters that play key roles in the pharmacokinetics of antiretroviral drugs used in the pre-exposure prophylaxis of HIV sexual transmission. In this study, we investigated the expression, regulation, and function of these transporters in cervicovaginal tissues of a mou...

HIV resides within anatomical 'sanctuary sites', where local drug exposure and viral dynamics may differ significantly from the systemic compartment. Suboptimal antiretroviral concentrations in the genital tract may result in compartmentalized viral replication, selection of resistant mutations and possible re-entry of wild-type/resistant virus into the systemic circulation. Therefore, achievin...

The human body is colonized by a vast number of microorganisms collectively referred to as the human microbiota. One of the main microbiota body sites is the female genital tract, commonly dominated by Lactobacillus spp., in approximately 70% of women. Each individual species can constitute approximately 99% of the ribotypes observed in any individual woman. The most frequently isolated species...