Non-secretor status; a predisposing factor for vaginal candidiasis

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.