Abstract: Objective To determine the peripheral blood dendritic cell (DC) subsets in patients with condyloma acuminata (CA) and its significance. Methods The CD11c⁺ peripheral blood DC (DC1) and CD123⁺ DC(DC2) subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry with three-color immunofluorescent staining in 25 patients with CA and 26 healthy controls. Results The proportion of CD123⁺ peripheral blood DCs was significantly increased in patients with CA[(0.63±0.34)%]in comparison with that in healthy controls [(0.41±0.17)%](P<0.01). It was further found that CD123⁺ DCs were increased markedly in the patients with long-course of disease [(0.83±0.42)%](P<0.01) and recurrent groups [(0.74±0.36)%](P<0.01) respectively, in comparison with patients with short-course of disease [(0.50±0.20)%] and first attack [(0.47±0.24)%](P<0.05). There was no significant difference of CD11c⁺ DC proportions between patients [(1.40±0.44)%]and the controls[(1.57±0.78)%](P>0.05). Conclusions The predominance of CD123⁺ DCs in peripheral blood of CA may favor Th2-dominated immunity, which may be related to recurrence and course of the disease.

Key words: Condylomata acuminata, Dendritic cells