ANALYSIS OF MHC CLASS-I AND CLASS-II EXPRESSION IN RELATION TO PRESENCE OF HPV GENOTYPES IN PREMALIGNANT AND MALIGNANT CERVICAL LESIONS

Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grades I to III lesions (n = 94) and squamous cell carcinomas of the uterine cervix (n = 27) were a nalysed for MHC class I and II expression and presence of HPV genotype s. MHC class I and II expression was studied by immunohistochemistry a nd HPV typing was performed by general primer- and type-specific prime r mediated PCR (GP/TS PCR). Both techniques were performed on paraffin embedded tissue sections. Results show disturbed MHC class I heavy ch ain expression in CIN I to CIN III, as well as in cervical carcinomas. Upregulated MHC class 11 expression on dysplastic epithelial cells wa s also found in the different CIN groups and carcinomas. Prevalence of HPV genotypes increased with the severity of the lesion, mainly due t o the contribution of the HPV types 16 and 18. No correlation could be established between the presence of specific HPV genotypes and any MH C expression pattern in the different CIN groups or cervical carcinoma s. In some cases these data were confirmed by RNA in situ hybridisatio n showing HPV 16 E7 transcripts in the same dysplastic/neoplastic cell s from which MHC status was determined. The results indicate that loca l differences may exist in the type of cellular immune response to HPV induced lesions.