The Study on the Relevance between Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Infections and Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urinary Bladder in Korean

Kwak, Cheol; Lee, Sang Eun

Abstract

The role of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in the development of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder is highly controversial because the detection rates of the HPV in TCC of the bladder were highly variable in the previous published literatures. Two recent publications highlight this controversy, but they examined the paraffin-embedded specimens of TCC of the bladder. This study was designed to evaluate the conflicting results of the role of HPV in the development of bladder carcinoma using non-fixed fresh frozen specimens. 1tenty patients were underwent the transurethral resection of the bladder tumor from April 1995 to July 1995 and were diagnosed as pure TCC of the urinary bladder on pathologic examination. The prevalence of type 16 and 18 HPV was investigated with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on non-fixed fresh frozen specimens, from 20 cases of TCC of the bladder. Six samples of normal bladder obtained at cystoscopic examination were served as negative controls. Positive controls were CasKi cell line for HPV 16 and the HeLa cell line for HPV 18. HPV type 16 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was detected in none of the 20 cases of transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder and in none of the normal urinary bladder cases. HPV type 18 DNA was detected in none of the 20 cases of TCC and in none of the normal urinary bladder cases. There was complete agreement between results of gel electrophoresis analysis and Southern blot hybridization. These results strongly suggest that HPV might play little role in the development of TCC of the urinary bladder in the general population of Korea.