Association of Bacterial Vaginosis with Higher Vaginal Indole Levels

We adapted a simple hydroxylamine-based indole assay to detect indole from stored vaginal swab specimens from women with and without bacterial vaginosis (BV). Women with BV had significantly higher vaginal indole levels compared with women without BV (6451.5 vs 5632.4 mu M; P = 0.01), suggesting that indole-producing bacteria are a component of BV.