Prevalence of HPV DNA and viral copy numbers in cervical scrapes from women with normal and abnormal cervices

Abstract

Cervical scrapes were obtained from 215 women with cytologically normal cervices and 74 women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and probed for HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18 by dot-blot hybridization. Viral copy numbers were determined by densitometric scanning of autoradiographs. The prevalence of HPV DNA in women with normal smears was as follows: 23 per cent of women attending a Family Planning Clinic (FPC), 16 per cent of women attending a Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) clinic, and 48 per cent of women attending a laser follow-up clinic after treatment of CIN. Ten per cent of women with normal cervices harboured HPV 16. Viral copy numbers ranged from 1300 to 52,800 genome equivalents per cell. Twenty-seven HPV-positive women with normal smears (including four patients infected with HPV 16) were followed for up to 3 years. None developed CIN irrespective of copy number. Our results show that HPV is present in normal cervices in the absence of CIN. Copy number has no relation to the development of CIN and factors other than the amount of HPV DNA may trigger the neoplastic process.

Development and evaluation of a PCR and mass spectroscopy (PCR–MS)-based method for quantitative, type-specific detection of human papillomavirus

“…Further, HPV 16 and HPV 18 copies/cell in the cervical cancer cell lines CaSki, Hela, and SiHa generally agreed with copy numbers derived by alternative methodologies (Lizard et al, 1993; Syrjanen et al, 1991). Similarly, the range of copies/cell (0.003 to over 300,000) that we obtained in our cervical scraping samples is consistent with previous reports using real-time PCR (Kulmala et al, 2007) and densitometric scanning of autoradiographs (Wickenden et al, 1987). We acknowledge that 300,000 copies/cell is an apparent outlier.…”

Detection and typing of human papillomavirus infection of the uterine cervix by dot blot hybridisation: Comparison of scrapes and biopsies

“…Studies of the uterine cervix have used either scrapes I Wagner et Schneider et al, 1985;Wickenden et al, 1985Wickenden et al, , 1987Campion et al, 1986;De Villiers et al, 1987; Webb et al, 19871 or biopsies [Durst et al, 1983;Boshart et al, 1984;Crum et al, 1984;McCance et al, 1985;Lorincz et al, 1986;Macnab et al, 1986; Meanwell et al, 19871 as the source of target nucleic acid, but they have not, to date, compared results using paired scrapes and biopsies from the same patients. The present authors made such a comparison using specimens obtained at colposcopy and analysed by dot blot DNA hybridisation.…”

Prevalence of cervical dysplasia and HPV infection according to sexual behavior

“…In the non-monogamous group, age at first sexual intercourse and index of parity were not associated with cervical HPV infection and/or CIN. The rates of HPV infection, however, were significantly different between the two populations, confirming that sexual behavior involving multiple partners is associated with HPV infection.Cervical carcinoma is the type of cancer exhibiting highest incidence in the female population in most developing coun- Nucleic acid hybridization is a sensitive technique for detecting and typing HPV in clinical samples (Wickenden et al, 1987). The application of DNA hybridization in conjunction with histopathological studies has clarified some aspects of the histogenesis of cervical neoplasms.…”