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A new solid polymer electrolyte based on semi‐interpenetrating polymer networks (semi‐IPN) of crosslinked poly(glycidyl methacrylate‐co‐acrylonitrile)/poly(ethylene oxide) (P(GMA‐co‐AN)/PEO) was synthesized with diethylenetriamine (DETA) as the crosslinking agent and characterized. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra suggested the formation of semi‐IPN structure by crosslinking and revealed the interactions of Li+ ions with both the ether oxygen in PEO chain and the nitrogen atom in AN segments. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X‐ray diffraction pattern (XRD) measurements showed that crystallization of the semi‐IPN polymer electrolyte was greatly impeded. Measurement of mechanical properties revealed that tensile strength of the polymer electrolyte was increased after crosslinking. Results of electrochemistry tests suggested that the new polymer electrolyte exhibited a high‐ionic conductivity (10−4 S/cm) at room temperature, and an Arrhenius‐like behavior of the conductivity was observed. And the semi‐IPN polymer electrolyte with less content of PEO exhibited lower ion conductivity. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008

In 20-40% of cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) and in 4-8% of cervical carcinoma tissue specimens, multiple HPV genotypes have been detected. Whole tissue section (WTS) PCR does not determine how the individual types relate causally to complex and multiple CIN. Our objective was to determine whether laser capture micro-dissection (LCM) with HPV PCR genotyping (LCM-PCR) could accurately recover type-specific HPV DNA from epithelial cells in individual areas of CIN and normal epithelium, and whether one or more viruses are present in one lesion. For that, histologically selected samples of CIN and normal epithelium were isolated by LCM and analysed by the SPF(10) PCR/LiPA(25) (version 1) HPV genotyping system for 25 HPV genotypes. HPV genotypes detected in 756 areas of CIN (grade 1, 2 or 3) by LCM-PCR were compared with results obtained by WTS-PCR in 60 cases (74 biopsies). We showed that when a single HPV type is detected by WTS-PCR, that type was almost always (94%; 29/31) recovered by LCM-PCR from CIN. When multiple HPV types were present by WTS-PCR, their distribution within histological sections could be mapped by LCM-PCR. Association of a single HPV type with a discrete area of CIN was found for 93% (372/399) of LCM fragments analysed by PCR. We found colliding CIN lesions associated with separate HPV types and only 62% (61/99) of HPV types detected by WTS-PCR were found in CIN by LCM-PCR. Therefore, the LCM-PCR technique was found very accurate for high-resolution HPV genotyping and for assigning an individual HPV type to an area of CIN. At LCM level, in cervical biopsy sections with multiple HPV infections, the relation between HPV types and CIN lesions is often complex. Almost every HPV type found in CIN by LCM-PCR is associated with a biological separate independent CIN lesion-one virus, one lesion.

The use of a single broad-spectrum human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA-based PCR test may fail to detect lower concentrations of HPV DNA due to competition between different genotypes in mixed infections. To improve HPV detection by PCR, broad-spectrum and type-specific (TS) PCRs were combined, with a focus on HPV-16 and HPV-18. Cervical and cervicovaginal cell samples were obtained from 1,113 healthy women (age range, 15 to 25 years) participating in an HPV-16/HPV-18 candidate vaccine efficacy trial. These samples were tested by a broad-spectrum SPF 10 PCR-DNA enzyme immunoassay, followed by a primer SPF 10 Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a DNA virus that infects cutaneous and mucosal epithelia and induces epithelial proliferation. More than 40 HPV genotypes have been detected in the anogenital region; and the clinically most important types are the oncogenic (high-risk) HPV genotypes (e.g., HPV-16 and HPV-18), which are involved in the development of highgrade cervical intraepithelial neoplasias and cervical cancer (5,23,37). HPV DNA has been detected in 99.7% of cervical cancer tissues (35); and persistent infection with an oncogenic HPV type, particularly HPV-16 or -18, is recognized as the necessary cause of cervical cancer (34). It is estimated that cervical cancer contributes to approximately 290,000 deaths and 490,000 new cases per year worldwide (24). Vaccination against the most common oncogenic HPV genotypes, HPV-16 and HPV-18, could prevent persistent infections with those genotypes and ultimately could also prevent the development of up to 70% of cases of cervical cancer worldwide (21,33

A comparison of two PCR-based human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA detection and genotyping systems (PGMY LBA and SPF 10 LiPA) was conducted in two laboratories. Both systems are based on broad-spectrum PCR for the detection of HPV DNA, followed by reverse hybridization with type-specific probes. A total of 400 selected cervical scrape specimens in PreservCyt solution (55% normal cytology, 18% atypical squamous cells of unknown significance, 14.8% low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions [SIL], and 12.5% high-grade SIL) were tested for the presence of HPV DNA. In this selected group of specimens, the overall agreement between the two methods for the detection of any HPV DNA was high ( ‫؍‬ 0.859). When the 20 common HPV genotypes identified by both methods were considered (HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 40, 42, 45, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 58, 59, 66, and 68), compatible genotype-specific results were observed in 96.5% of the samples, even when multiple HPV genotypes were present. However, for some specific HPV genotypes, there were significant differences in HPV detection by the two methods. PGMY LBA detected more HPV type 42 (P ‫؍‬ 0.002), HPV type 56 (P ‫؍‬ 0.039), and HPV type 59 (P < 0.001), whereas SPF 10 LiPA detected more HPV type 31 (P < 0.001) and HPV type 52 (P ‫؍‬ 0.031). For the remaining genotypes, including HPV types 16 and 18, the results obtained by the two methods were not significantly different. In general, both genotyping methods are highly suitable for clinical and epidemiological studies.Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with an increased risk for the development of cervical neoplasia (15,22). Accurate type-specific diagnosis of HPV infections requires sensitive molecular methods, such as PCR. The accurate detection of HPV DNA by PCR is hampered by the existence of a large number of viral genotypes with highly diverse nucleotide sequences (2,5,23,25). PCR-based HPV detection methods have been used for detailed clinical, epidemiological, and natural history studies to elucidate the importance of the different HPV genotypes (7,10,11,21,26). Among the genotypes occurring in the anogenital region, high-risk and low-risk groups have been identified based on their epidemiological association with the development of cervical cancer (4,19,27). Therefore, reliable identification of HPV genotypes, in combination with cytological screening, may be relevant for patient management. In addition, to study the effects of antiviral treatment or type-specific vaccination, accurate HPV genotyping methods are essential for the selection and monitoring of study subjects.Various PCR-based methods have been described for the identification of HPV genotypes. Individual genotypes can be detected by type-specific PCR primer sets (1, 24). However, these require the performance of multiple parallel assays for each sample, and type-specific PCR primers have not been reported for each HPV genotype. Alternatively, general PCR primer sets can be used, permitting simultaneous amplification of a broad rang...