Detection of human papillomavirus DNA in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded squamous papillomas of the oral cavity

Abstract

BackgroundSquamous papillomas are exophytic proliferations of surface oral epithelium. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is widely accepted as the etiology of squamous papillomas however the virus cannot be detected in a significant percentage of lesions.Material and MethodsUsing polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we tested 35 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) squamous papillomas for the presence of HPV DNA.ResultsSix papillomas (17%) tested positive for HPV DNA; four contained HPV-6 and two contained HPV-11. Given that β–globin DNA was only identified in half of the samples, DNA degradation appears to have significantly impacted the results.ConclusionsThe results likely represent an underestimation of the true number of HPV-positive specimens in our study. Potential explanations for HPV-negative squamous papillomas include transient HPV infection, failure of the experiment to detect HPV if present, or the possibility that some lesions may not result from HPV infection. Key words:HPV, PCR, FFPE, papilloma, oral.

Comparison of HPV detection rate in formalin‐fixed paraffin‐embedded tissues of head and neck carcinoma using two DNA extraction kits and three amplification methods

“…HPV DNA was not detected in any of the examined FFPE samples using single PCR with two different sets of primers, MY09/MY11 and GP5+/GP6 + , for amplification of the HPV L1 gene (amplicons 450 and 150 bp, respectively). These results are consistent with previous reports of several comparative studies of different methods for HPV DNA detection (36‐40). The absence of HPV DNA amplification using single PCR may be explained by the low sensitivity of single PCR and the long amplification sequence (mainly MY09/MY11 protocol).…”

“…Nowadays, the molecular detection of HPV DNA is the gold standard for virus detection in a wide variety of samples, including FFPE tissues. However, substantial variation in HPV detection rates in FFPE tissues has been reported, suggesting that these differences may be associated with different length of amplicons (15,35,36). In this study, we compared the efficiency of HPV detection in FFPE tissues of HNSCC using single PCR, nested PCR, and real‐time PCR.…”