Use of lactoferrin assay in the diagnosis of different vaginal pathogens

ABSTRACT

Local cell mediated immunity is more important than systemic immunity for protection against different vaginal pathogens. The predominant inflammatory cells in vaginal pool are almost exclusively polymorphonuclear neutrophils [PMN] which were varied according to the type of vaginal pathogens, lactoferrin is an iron binding glycoprotein found in the secondary granules of PMN. In order to determine the usefulness of such marker for neutrophilic activity in different vaginal infections, we examined the vaginal discharge using antilactoferrin antibodies [lactoferrin latex agglutination test LFLA].Against different gold standard techniques. Our results demonstrated that Trichomonas vaginalis [T.V] revealed a high lactoferrin titer which was positively correlated with the number of PMN. In addition, cases with vaginal candidiasis [V.C] was characterized by mild inflammatory process as expressed by mild lactoferrin level which was also correlated with the PMN count. However, a paradoxic finding was observed in discharge recovered from cases with bacterial vaginosis [B.V] where lactoferrin titer was not correlated with PMN count. In addition, the findings of the present work indicated that LFLA was sensitive and specific when used alone and its sensitivity was increased after coupling with other simple methods as pH determination or amin test. In conclusion, our results described the feasibility of using LFLA as a simple, extremely sensitive, reliable method in distinguishing different types of vaginal pathogens, so it could be used as a promising method for a widespread community screening to diagnose population of females at risk