Trial reportPloS one2015
Randomized Cross-Sectional Study to Compare HIV-1 Specific Antibody and Cytokine Concentrations in Female Genital Secretions Obtained by Menstrual Cup and Cervicovaginal Lavage.
Trial report in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in concentrations of cervicovaginal immune mediators across the menstrual cycle: a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual patient data.BMC medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Cervicovaginal Immune Activation in Zambian Women With Female Genital Schistosomiasis.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Trial
- Comparison of sampling methods to measure HIV RNA viral load in female genital tract secretions.American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2017Trial
- Effect of Anserine/Carnosine Supplementation on Verbal Episodic Memory in Elderly People.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2016Trial
- Optical assessment of genital changes associated with female sexual arousal: a mini-review.Sexual medicine · 2025Review
- Drug transporter mRNA expression and genital inflammation in South African women on oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).AIDS research and therapy · 2025Article
- Sustained immune activation and impaired epithelial barrier integrity in the ectocervix of women with chronic HIV infection.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Article
- Comparative analysis of vaginal microbiota sampling using menstrual cups and high vaginal swabs in pregnant women living with HIV-1 infection.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2023Article
- Sexual violence history predicts changes in vaginal immune parameters during sexual arousal.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Article
- Considerations for Choosing Soluble Immune Markers to Determine Safety of Novel Vaginal Products.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2022Review
- Genital HSV-1 DNA detection is associated with a low inflammatory profile in HIV-uninfected South African women.Sexually transmitted infections · 2021Article
- Temporal Changes in Vaginal Microbiota and Genital Tract Cytokines Among South African Women Treated for Bacterial Vaginosis.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Article
- Article
- Article
- Lower genital tract cytokine profiles in South African women living with HIV: influence of mucosal sampling.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Optimising the collection of female genital tract fluid for cytokine analysis in pregnant women.Journal of immunological methods · 2018Article
- Semen IgM, IgG1, and IgG3 Differentially Associate With Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in HIV-Infected Men.Frontiers in immunology · 2018Article
- Characteristics of HIV target CD4 T cells collected using different sampling methods from the genital tract of HIV seronegative women.PloS one · 2017Article
- Human vaginal fluid contains exosomes that have an inhibitory effect on an early step of the HIV-1 life cycle.AIDS (London, England) · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionOptimizing methods for genital specimen collection to accurately characterize mucosal immune responses is a priority for the HIV prevention field. The menstrual cup (MC) has been proposed as an alternative to other methods including cervicovaginal lavage (CVL), but no study has yet formally compared these two methods.
methodsForty HIV-infected, antiretroviral therapy-naïve women from the CAPRISA 002 acute HIV infection cohort study were randomized to have genital fluid collected using the MC with subsequent CVL, or by CVL alone. Qualitative data, which assessed levels of comfort and acceptability of MC using a 5-point Likert scale, was collected. Luminex multiplex assays were used to measure HIV-specific IgG against multiple gene products and 48 cytokines.
resultsThe majority (94%) of participants indicated that insertion, wearing and removal of the MC was comfortable. Nineteen MCs with 18 matching, subsequent CVLs and 20 randomized CVLs were available for analysis. Mucosal IgG responses against four HIV-antigens were detected in 99% of MCs compared to only 80% of randomized CVLs (p = 0.029). Higher specific antibody activity and total antibodies were observed in MCs compared to CVL (all p<0.001). In MCs, 42/48 (88%) cytokines were in the detectable range in all participants compared to 27/48 (54%) in CVL (p<0.001). Concentrations of 22/41 cytokines (53.7%) were significantly higher in fluid collected by MC. Both total IgG (r = 0.63; p = 0.005) and cytokine concentrations (r = 0.90; p<0.001) correlated strongly between MC and corresponding post-MC CVL.
conclusionsMC sampling improves the detection of mucosal cytokines and antibodies, particularly those present at low concentrations. MC may therefore represent an ideal tool to assess immunological parameters in genital secretions, without interfering with concurrent collection of conventional CVL samples.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.