Overexpression of the proto‐oncogene C‐jun in association with low‐risk type specific human papillomavirus infection in condyloma acuminata

Abstract

Infection with different types of human papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with neoplasia at different anatomic sites. The "low-risk" HPVs (LR-HPV) are responsible for benign genital lesions such as condyloma acuminata. In order to clarify the tumorigenic mechanism of LR-HPV, the HPV infection status was investigated and the expression of the c-jun proto-oncogene in different HPV-related skin and genital lesions analyzed. Of the 17 condyloma specimens analyzed by Western blotting, 13 cases (76.5%) exhibited overexpression of the c-jun gene. All 13 cases harbored high copy numbers of the LR-HPV genome with an average of 926 copies per cell, whereas the other four cases had an average of 12 copies of LR-HPV per cell (P < 0.001). Further typing of HPV by Southern blotting revealed that HPV-6 and HPV-11 infections predominated in c-jun positive cases. The c-jun protein was detected much less frequently in cervical cancers (three of 29, or 10.3%) and skin warts (one of 10), and was not detected in five genital polyps or in five normal cervical tissues. These findings suggest a type 6/11-specific induction of c-jun gene expression in HPV-related neoplastic lesions.

Genetic polymorphism of the interferon‐γ gene in cervical carcinogenesis

“…Genomic DNA was extracted by proteinase K digestion and phenol-chloroform extraction as described previously. 23 Cervical scrapings of patients with HSIL and white blood cells of control subjects were collected, 22 and genomic DNA was extracted by using a Qiagen DNA extraction kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturer's protocol. Concentration of the genomic DNA was determined by using fluorescent illumination with PicoGreen dye (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR).…”