Nucleic acid dot blot hybridization with fragmented digoxygenin labelled probes in human papillomavirus DNA screening

Twenty human genital tissue samples from patients with different premalignant and malignant lesions were investigated by nucleic acid hybridization, using the dot blot technique. Molecular probes of various length--whole or fragmented papillomavirus genome--were digoxygenin-labelled. Human papillomavirus 16 DNA was identified in fifteen cases, well correlated with the clinical diagnosis. Fragments of papillomavirus genome proved to be efficient probes in nucleic acid hybridization as compared with the whole genome used for the same purpose.