Genital warts and cervical cancer. VI. The relationship between aneuploid and polyploid cervical lesions
Reid, R.; Fu, Y.S.; Herschman, B.R.; Crum, C.P.; Braun, L.; Shah, K.V.; Agronow, S.J.; Stanhope, C.R.
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 150(2): 189-199
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9378 PMID: 6089564 Document Number: 224892
Human papillomaviral infection is now widely implicated in the causation of cervical neoplasia. Genotype analysis provides the best guide to biologic outcome; most polyploid lesions regress and most aneuploid ones persist or progress. This prospective survey examined the relationships between cell ploidy and 24 objectively validated criteria of human papillomaviral infection or premalignant change in 52 biopsies from a dysplasia clinic. Histologic evidence of benign warty expression and human papillomaviral capsid antigen production decreased steadily as DNA content ranged from diploidy to polyploidy to aneuploidy. In contrast, premalignant change increased with progressive distortion of nuclear DNA content. No absolute discriminants were found between polyploidy and aneuploidy, as evidenced by the detection of human papillomaviral proteins in 3 of 21 aneuploid epithelia and the recognition of abnormal mitotic figures in 5 of 17 polyploid lesions. Polyploid and aneuploid lesions differed only in severity, and it appears that some polyploid epithelia may be transition forms between diploidy and aneuploidy.