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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

RNAscope for In situ Detection of Transcriptionally Active Human Papillomavirus in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Published on: March 11, 2014
Decreased p21 expression in HPV-18 positive cervical carcinomas
Lee-Wen Huang1, Kok-Min Seow, Chin-Cheng Lee
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, 95 Wen Chang Road, Shih-Lin District, Taipei, 111, Taiwan. m002057@ms.skh.org.tw
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between different human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes and the expression of p53, p21 and p27 in cervical carcinomas. A total of 103 cases of cervical carcinomas were assayed for expression of p53, p21 and p27 by immunohistochemistry. HPV typing was carried out by two polymerase chain reaction-based methods. Overall, HPV prevalence was 97.1% among the cervical carcinomas in this study. HPV-16 was detected in 66% of the tumors, HPV-18 in 7.8%, HPV-16/18 in 7.8% and other HPV types in 15.5%. The expression of p53 and p27 was not related to HPV genotype. However, in the HPV-18 positive cervical carcinomas, expression of p21 was significantly decreased or completely absent (P = 0.019). Our results indicated that down-regulation of p21 was strongly associated with HPV-18 positive cervical carcinomas. The significantly lower expression of p21 protein in HPV-18 positive samples compared to HPV-18 negative cervical carcinomas supports the hypothesis that inactivation and degradation of p21 proteins by HPV-18 E7 may play an important role in the carcinogenesis of HPV-18 positive cervical neoplasia.
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