Detection of human papillomavirus type 52b in cervical dysplastic tissue

We examined infection in the tissue of cervical dysplasia of human papillomavirus (HPV) 52b, which we recently isolated from cervical cancer. To screen a lot of samples, we used an assay system with an HPV DNA typing kit containing an HPV 33 probe that cross-hybridizes with HPV 52b DNA. DNA samples from 123 patients with cervical dysplasia were first screened with this kit. Sixteen of these appeared to be positive, and they were subjected to Southern blot hybridization with the HPV 52b probe under highly stringent conditions. Of the 16 samples, two were found to have HPV 52b genome DNA. Our results, together with the fact that HPV 52b was isolated from cervical cancer, seem to support the notion that HPV 52b infection is closely associated with the onset of cervical cancer.