Renal allograft recipients were shown to have an increased incidence of warts and skin cancers. We examined 148 patients for evidence of wart virus infections and tested for papillomavirus types, which are known to be associated with human malignancies. Of the 148, 36 (24.3%) patients were afflicted with warts at the end of our study period, in contrast to 5 of 148 (3.3%) before transplantation. DNA from 16 different biopsies was extracted by phenol treatment for further virological studies. DNA of human papillomavirus (HPV) 2 was detected three times, DNA of HPV 4 and 10 twice, and DNA of HPV 3 and 16 once each by blot hybridization. One probe led to strong signals with HPV types previously found only in epidermodysplasia verruciformis patients. A correlation between histology and virus type existed in cases of HPV 2, 3, 4, and 10 infections.

Solitary keratoacanthomas of 32 patients were screened for the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) 25 DNA, which was originally isolated and molecularly cloned from warts of an epidermodysplasia verruciformis (Ev) patient. Biotinylated virus DNA was hybridized in situ to thin sections obtained from paraffin-embedded material. HPV DNA was detected in 12 of 32 tumors under stringent conditions, and in 2 additional tumors under relaxed conditions.

A variety of benign squamous epithelial lesions of the mucosa are associated with human papiUomaviruses (HPV). Recently virus-specific DNA was also detected in oral invasive carcinomas. In sections of 373 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded samples taken from benign and precancerous leukoplakias and squamous cell carcinomas, HPV DNA could be identified in 56 specimens by in situ hybridization technique. The biological significance of viruses of the HPV group in the carcinogenesis of oral epithelial lesions is still unknown.

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Five human papillomavirus (HPV) DNAs from lesions of an epidermodysplasia verruciformis patient were cloned in lambda L 47: DNA of HPV 5, which predominated in the carcinoma; DNA of a variant type of HPV 8, which was not detected in the carcinoma DNA by Southern blot hybridization but only by cloning; and DNAs of three papillomaviruses that were isolated from warts. Southern blot and liquid phase DNA-DNA hybridization under stringent conditions showed that the three viruses from warts were new types, which we named HPVs 19, 20, and 25. These viruses cross-hybridized between 3 and 29% among themselves and with HPVs 5 and 8. After physical mapping with several restriction enzymes, the colinear genomes were aligned with HPV 8 DNA to define early and late regions. HPVs 8, 19, and 25 shared homology in different parts of their genomes.