INCREASING INCIDENCE OF CD44V7 8 EPITOPE EXPRESSION DURING UTERINE CERVICAL CARCINOGENESIS/

Splice variants of the cell surface glycoprotein CD44 (CD44v) have bee n implicated in the progression of various human tumors. In the presen t study, we have examined the expression pattern of a CD44v epitope en coded by the adjacent variant exons v7 and v8 during human cervical ca rcinogenesis, While only I/II normal cervical squamous epithelia was p ositive for this epitope by immunohistochemistry, 4/21 samples of low- grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions (LSIL), 17/35 samples of high- grade squamous intra-epithelial lesions (HSIL), 11/12 samples of the H SIL subgroup of carcinoma in site and 17/17 cases of invasive cervical carcinoma showed CD44v7/8 epitope expression. In addition to CD44 var iant expression, we have analyzed 67 lesions for the presence of HPV16 /18-DNA using PCR. Most of the samples expressing the v7/8 epitope wer e also HPV16-positive (29/32), whereas only 17/35 of the v7/8-negative samples were HPV16-positive. HPV18 DNA was found in only one invasive carcinoma, Our data suggest that high-risk HPV infection may precede CD44v7/8 expression and that the number of samples expressing the CD44 v7/8 epitope increases during carcinogenesis and reaches nearly 100% at the carcinoma in situ stage. This CD44 epitope could, therefore, se rve as a diagnostic marker of cervical squamous cell carcinomas and as a possible target for CD44v7/8 epitope-directed therapies. (C) 1996 W iley-Liss, Inc.