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-alpha,-beta and -gamma and to anti-IFN-alpha/beta- and gamma-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-alpha, beta and gamma antibodies. In contrast, a significantly lower percentage of high-risk HPV-infected tissues was immunoreactive to IFN-beta in the stroma and IFN-gamma 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.