European Journal of Gynaecological Oncology (EJGO) is published by IMR Press from Volume 40 Issue 1 (2019). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with S.O.G.
Interferons and their receptors in human papillomavirus lesions of the uterine cervix
Purpose of investigation: In this study we analyzed the immunohistochemical expression of specific types of interferon (IFN) in human papillomavirus (HPV) associated cervical lesions. Methods: Reactivity to anti-IFN-α, -β and -γ and to anti-IFN-α/β- and γ-receptors was tested in 33 cervical punch biopsies from 24 HPV-infected women and nine healthy controls. The HPV-infected cases were subdivided into low-risk and high-risk groups, according to the known “oncogenic” potential of the HPV-types detected by PCR. Results: Cervical epithelium and stroma in HPV-negative as well as low-risk HPV-positive samples were diffusely stained by anti IFN-α, Band γ antibodies. In contrast, a significantly lower percentage of high-risk HPV-infected tissues was immunoreactive to IFNβ in the stroma and IFN-y in the epithelium. There were no relevant differences between control and HPV cases in the expression of IFN-receptors. Conclusion: We show that a decreased production of some specific classes of IFN is associated with high-risk-type HPV lesions suggesting an important role of IFN distribution patterns in the pathogenesis of HPV lesions.