Cervical wart virus infection, intraepithelial neoplasia and carcinoma; an immunohistological study using a panel of monoclonal antibodies.

The pattern of epithelial antigen expression has been examined in normal and disordered cervical squamous epithelium using immunohistological methods and a range of monoclonal antibodies. It was demonstrated that wart virus infection (WVI) is associated with disordered staining for a keratin-associated component and for HLA-DR antigen. Furthermore, wart-infected epithelium shows strong labelling for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and for human milk fat globule antigens 1 and 2 (HMFG1 and 2). In addition these antigens (CEA, HMFG1 and 2) are also expressed in mixed WVI and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), CIN III and in carcinoma. While these findings do not allow immunohistological discrimination between non-neoplastic and neoplastic cervical epithelia, they do provide support for the view that cellular proliferation of the type induced by papilloma virus may represent an initiator stage in the process of neoplastic transformation.