The evaluation of PCNA/cyclin expression in cervical intraepithelial lesions

This study aims at evaluating the expression of PCNA/cyclin in the cells of cervical intraepithelial lesions. The material constituted 121 colposcopic biopsies from patients with cytological and/or colposcopical evidence of condyloma (HPV) or CIN. The cases were classified as follows: 20 as koilocytosis, 31 as CIN I and HPV, 30 as CIN II and HPV, 1 as CIN III and HPV, and 7 as CIN III. Immunohistochemical detection of PCNA/cyclin was performed on paraffin sections by the avidin-extravidin method using the monoclonal antibody PC10 (DAKO). According to our results a statistically significant difference was observed between all groups of our material (P < 0.01). The expression of PC10 may thus offer useful information on the proliferation capacity of a CIN lesion with regard to the histological pattern. Moreover, this method is simple and reproducible, requiring no specialized equipment or medical staff.