HLA TYPES IN WOMEN WITH CERVICAL HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS (HPV) LESIONS PROSPECTIVELY FOLLOWED UP FOR 10 YEARS

Certain genotypes of HPV have been recently implicated in the etiology of carcinoma of the uterine cervix. In order to determine whether HLA antigen-controlled immunoregulatory functions have a role in the path ogenesis of HPV infections, class I and II HLA antigen typing was carr ied out on a series of 96 randomly selected women who were part of a c ohort of 530 women prospectively followed up for cervical HPV infectio ns in our clinic since 1981. The frequency of the DQ3 antigen, which h as previously been reported to be increased among cervical cancer pati ents, was decreased in our HPV patients compared with the control grou p of Finnish women, but it was slightly increased in HPV16-infected wo men (P=0.0812). However, we were able to demonstrate that HLA-DR5 anti gen is significantly increased (i) in patients with high grade cervica l intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) (P<0.02), and (ii) in women harbouri ng the high risk HPV type 16 (P=0.0003), thus confirming earlier repor ts of an association of this HLA antigen and cervical cancer. Such a c lose association between the high risk HPV type 16 with an HLA antigen might have important implications in the possible immunogenetic basis of the increased risk for squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cerv ix.