Vaginal swabs: endogenous and postcoital components

The relationship between components found on vaginal swabs was examined to determine whether the presence and quantity of a particular component could be used to predict the presence of others or to help interpret grouping results. Vaginal swabs were tested for the presence of blood, cellular material, spermatozoa, acid phosphatase, p30, ABH, Lewis, EsD, GLO I, PGM and PGM subtype. Methods included rocket electrophoresis and p-nitrophenyl phosphate assay for acid phosphatase; rocket and cross-over electrophoresis for p30. Results from 323 semen-free and postcoital vaginal swabs from known donors are presented. Comparison of methods showed that seminal acid phosphatase and p30 were detected more often by the rocket techniques. Attributing the grouping results to semen, based on the reactivity of any single component, could lead to erroneous conclusions. Activation of vaginal components in the presence of semen and endogenous vaginal levels are discussed.