Quantitation of human cervical mucin during consecutive days and hourly during one day at midcycle

Cervical mucin was quantitated in individual samples collected daily during midcycle in 14 normally menstruating women. Quantitation was performed with a recently developed lectin-mediated light scattering (nephelometry) method after separation of soluble proteins from the mucin. Furthermore, mucin was quantitated in individual samples in another group of 12 women from whom cervical secretion samples had been collected hourly from 8.00 to 12.00 a.m. There were significant differences between cycle days (p less than 0.05; two-way analysis of variance) for total amounts of mucin secreted and for mucin concentrations. But during repeated sample collection, only the total amounts of mucin secreted and not the concentrations were affected. From trend analysis data it could be concluded that both mucin contents and water contents increased at midcycle.