Smoking in women with chronic vaginal discomfort is not associated with decreased abundance of Lactobacillus spp. but promotes Mobiluncus and Gardnerella spp. overgrowth - secondary analysis of trial data including microbio-me analysis.

Background: Smoking is considered a risk factor for bacterial vaginosis. It is currently unknown which parameters of the vaginal environment are affected and how smoking triggers the disease.

Aim Of The Study: The primary objective is to estimate the effect size of smoking on vaginal pH and the Nugent score in patients with chronic vulvovaginal discomfort prior to the development of episode of vaginosis.

Simplified stratum corneum model membranes for studying the effects of permeation enhancers.

The activity of transdermal permeation enhancers is usually evaluated in vitro on human or animal skin, but skin samples can be hard to source and highly variable. To provide a more consistent basis for evaluating the activity of permeation enhancers, we prepared relatively simple and inexpensive artificial membranes that imitate the stratum corneum (SC) lipid matrix. Our membranes were composed of stearic acid, cholesterol, cholesterol sulfate and a ceramide (CER) component consisting of N-2-hydroxystearoyl phytosphingosine (CER[AP]) and/or N-stearoyl phytosphingosine (CER[NP]).