Abstract:

Objective To detect the infection rate of human papillomavirus （HPV） types in keratoacanthoma （KA） tissue, and to study the distribution of HPV DNA-positive cells. Methods In situ hybridization was performed to detect HPV subtypes 6/11, 16/18, and 31/33 in paraffin-embeded tissue samples from 46 patients with KA and 34 nomal human controls. Results Mucosal HPV DNA was positive in 31 （67.39%） of the 46 KA samples, and mixed infection rate of HPV amounted to 83.87% （26/31） in these positive samples. The DNA of tested mucosal HPV types existed mainly in episomal status. Positive reactions were observed within or at the edge of nuclei. HPV infected cells showed a stripe-, slice-like or focal distribution mainly in superficial middle lamina of spinous layer at the bottom or lateral margin of crater-shaped epidermal depression. No mucosal HPV DNA was noted in normal control samples. Conclusions Compared with normal controls, patients with KA are infected with mucosal HPV at a higher frequency, and mucosal HPV DNA mainly exists in episomal status in KA tissue, hinting that HPV infection play a certain role in the pathogenesis of KA.

Key words: [Key words] Keratoacanthoma, Papillomavirus, human, In situ hybridization