Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Forensic Medicine and Clinical Toxicology

Background and Aim: the presence of vaginal fluid provides crucial evidence in investigating sexual assaults.The vaginal secretions are known to be rich in lactobacillus, hence the current work aims to identify vaginal secretions via detection and quantification of lactobacillus DNA. Participants & Methods: Samples of vaginal fluid were collected from 20 adult healthy females (10 premenopausal and 10 postmenopausal). Two samples were taken from each participant and samples were divided into four groups: fresh premenopausal, stored premenopausal, fresh postmenopausal and stored postmenopausal group. Five saliva samples and five urine samples were collected as control samples. Detection and quantification of the Lactobacillus DNA was done by using {u2206}Critical Threshold method applied by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approach. Comparative results were done using both Critical Threshold method and Relative Expression aiming to evaluate the two methods

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