Randomized Cross-Sectional Study to Compare HIV-1 Specific Antibody and Cytokine Concentrations in Female Genital Secretions Obtained by Menstrual Cup and Cervicovaginal Lavage.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Optimizing methods for genital specimen collection to accurately characterize mucosal immune responses is a priority for the HIV prevention field. The menstrual cup (MC) has been proposed as an alternative to other methods including cervicovaginal lavage (CVL), but no study has yet formally compared these two methods.

Methods

Forty HIV-infected, antiretroviral therapy-naïve women from the CAPRISA 002 acute HIV infection cohort study were randomized to have genital fluid collected using the MC with subsequent CVL, or by CVL alone. Qualitative data, which assessed levels of comfort and acceptability of MC using a 5-point Likert scale, was collected. Luminex multiplex assays were used to measure HIV-specific IgG against multiple gene products and 48 cytokines.

R

SUBMITTER: Archary D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4492781 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature