The relation between the type of immunoreactive cells found in human papillomavirus (HPV) lesions of the uterine cervix and the subsequent behaviour of these lesions.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) lesions in the skin are rejected by immunological mechanisms, but very little is known about such mechanisms in HPV lesions of the uterine cervix. We studied the mononuclear cell infiltrates in cervical biopsies from 65 women with an HPV lesion (flat, inverted or papillomatous condyloma) who were followed for at least twelve months. We examined cryostat sections using the ANAE (acid alpha-naphthylacetate esterase) technique to demonstrate B cell, T cells, and mononuclear phagocytes (MPs), and monoclonal antibodies (OKT3, OKT4, OKT6, and OKT8) for the T cell subsets. The percentages of B-, T-, and MPs in HPV lesions with concomitant cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) were similar to those lesions without CIN. Similarly, no significant differences in cell type percentages were found in HPV lesions which regressed (n = 24), remained stationary (n = 24) or progressed (n = 3) during the follow-up period. The ratio OKT4+/OKT8+ (T helper/T suppressor, cytotoxic) cells was 1.44 and 0.81 in HPV lesions with CIN and those without CIN respectively (p less than 0.025). No statistically significant differences in that ratio were found between the lesions which remained stationary, regressed or progressed. The tendency to progress was directly related to the degree of CIN associated with HPV.