ROLE OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS IN DETERMINING THE HLA ASSOCIATED RISK OF CERVICAL CARCINOGENESIS

Aims-To investigate the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the asso ciation between HLA DQw3 and squamous cell cancer of the cervix (SCCC) . Methods-Tissue from 194 cervical samples, ranging from normal, throu gh cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, to SCCC, were typed for HPV by amplification of the L1 gene using degenerate consensus primers, follo wed by oligonucleotide probing. HLA DQw3 typing was undertaken in the same samples using a new PCR amplification system using primers common to all DQ loci, followed by restriction digestion with Mlu 1 to diffe rentiate HLA DQwS types-null, heterozygous, and homozygous. The data w ere analysed using chi(2) analysis and by calculating relative risks w ith the 95% confidence interval. Results-Samples (n = 188) were succes sfully typed for HPV and 177 were typed for HLA DQw3. There was a nons ignificant rise in the prevalence of HLA DQw3 in SCCC (64.3%) compared with the group with normal histology (53.2%). Analysis of the prevale nce of HLA DQw3 on the basis of HPV infection rather than histology sh owed that 63 of 95 (66.3%) of the HPV positive samples contained HLA D Qw3 alleles, compared with 39 of 78 (50.0%) of the HPV negative sample s chi(2) 4.06; p < 0.05). Conclusions-There was a significant associat ion between HLA DQw3 and cervical HPV infection. This may be because p eople with HLA DQw3 are less able to mount an effective immune respons e to HPV, which predisposes them to the development of SCCC.