Detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in laryngeal papilloma

Laryngeal papillomas are troublesome benign tumors of the larynx. According to their biological behavior, there are two types of laryngeal papillomas--the juvenile and adult types. Two samples of adult-type and five samples of juvenile-type laryngeal papilloma specimens were studied using the Southern blot technique with radioactively labeled human papillomavirus (HPV) 6b, 16, 18 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as probes. We found that there was a linear form, an episomal form, and a concatemer or catenane of HPV DNA in the 5 samples of juvenile laryngeal papilloma and there was no evidence of HPV DNA integration. The HPV DNA in tumor cells is very closely associated with HPV 6b, but has no positive hybridization with HPV 16 and 18 DNA even in a low stringent condition. There was no positive hybridization found in the 2 samples of adult-type laryngeal papilloma with any of the three probes.