Non-secretor Status: a Predisposing Factor for Vaginal Candidiasis
Dayaprasad G. Kulkarni and Venkatesh D.*
Department of Physiology,
Sri
Devaraj Urs Medical College,
Tamaka,
Kolar
( Received on May 22, 2003 )
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Abstract : A secretor is an individual who
secretes blood group antigens into body fluids such as saliva,
sweat, tears, semen and serum. An attempt has been made to
establish the correlation between the secretor status and
susceptibility to vaginal candidiasis. The secretor status was
determined by haemagglutination inhibition technique. The presence
of Candida albicans infection was detected by direct
microscopy of the wet smear and confirmed by germ tube test and
corn meal agar test. It was observed that out of the 64 patients,
15 were secretors and 49 were non-secretors. However 43 subjects
were secretors and 13 non-secretors among the 56 controls. Thus
prevalence of vaginal candidiasis was significantly higher in
non-secretor group (P<0.01). The absence of blood group antigens
in the body fluids and the lack of enzyme glycosyl transferase
enhance the attachment of yeast to the epithelial cell and render
the non-secretor more prone to infection.
Key words : vaginal
candidiasis
blood group antigens
secretors
uro-epithelium
