RESEARCH ARTICLE Impact of Bacterial Vaginosis, as Assessed by Nugent Criteria and Hormonal Status on Glycosidases and Lectin Binding in

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of hormonal status and bacterial vaginosis (BV) on the glycosidases present and glycosylation changes as assessed by lec-tin binding to cervicovaginal lavage constituents. Frozen cervicovaginal lavage samples from a completed study examining the impact of reproductive hormones on the physico-chemical properties of vaginal fluid were utilized for the present study. In the parent study, 165 women were characterized as having BV, intermediate or normal microflora using the Nugent criteria. The presence of glycosidases in the samples was determined using quanti-tative 4-methyl-umbelliferone based assays, and glycosylation was assessed using en-zyme linked lectin assays (ELLA). Women with BV had elevated sialidase, α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase and α-glucosidase activities compared to intermediate or normal women (P<0.001, 0.003, 0.006 and 0.042 respectively). The amount of sialic acid (Sambucus nigra, P = 0.003) and high mannose (griffithsin, P<0.001) were reduced, as evaluated by lectin binding, in women with BV. When the data were stratified according to hormonal status, α-glucosidase and griffithsin binding were decreased among postmenopausal wome