Korean J Obstet Gynecol.  2009 Dec;52(12):1279-1286.

HPV in situ hybridization and immunohistochemical expression of L1 capsid protein in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

• Jung ES
• Shin JH
• Lee KJ
• Kim DC
• Lee A
• Choi YJ
• Park JS
• Lee WC

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
HPV in situ hybridization (ISH) is able to detect HPV DNA and identify integrated HPV DNA by punctuate staining and episomal HPV by diffuse staining in the nuclei. Because the expression of L1 capsid protein disappears after integration of HPV DNA, immunohistochemistry (IHC) of L1 capsid protein can be used as a indirect evidence of integration. Therefore, we tried to evaluate the usefulness of HPV ISH and IHC of L1 capsid protein in Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).
METHODS
Twenty six cervical lesions from patients with CIN and 19 normal cervical epithelium from patients with leiomyoma were evaluated with HPV ISH and IHC of L1 capsid protein.
RESULTS
HPV ISH was positive in 80.8% (21/26) in CIN. Among 21 positive cases, diffuse staining was observed in 42.9% and punctuated and diffuse staining in 57.1%. L1 capsid protein was positive in 65.4% (17/26) of cervical tissue sections and 15.4% (4/26) of cervical smears. The punctuated staining of HPV ISH was correlated with high grade CIN (P=0.007) but expression of L1 capsid protein was not associated with grade of CIN (P>0.05).
CONCLUSION
HPV ISH is a useful tool to identify integrated HPV DNA in paraffin-embedded, formalin-fixed cervical tissue. HPV integration confirmed by HPV ISH was associated with high-grade CIN. IHC of L1 capsid protein showed better result using cytology smears than tissue sections.

Keyword

HPV ISH; L1 capsid protein; Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

MeSH Terms

Capsid
Capsid Proteins
Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia
DNA
Epithelium
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
In Situ Hybridization
Leiomyoma
Vaginal Smears
Capsid Proteins
DNA