Abstract: We studied biopsy specimens taken from normal-appearing skin adjacent to the lesions of 35 cases of condyloma acuminata for HPV related sequences by Southern blot hybridization using digoxigenin-labelled mixed HPV 6b, 11, 16 and 18 DNA probes. The results demonstrated that HPV was detected in 17 out of 35 cases (48.6%). This shows that latent infection of HPV is responsible for the relapse. We also studied 30 biopsy specimens (including 15 original and 15 relapsed lesions taken from 30 cases) and analyzed for HPV sequences by general primer-mediated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and dot blot hybridization using digoxigenin-labelled specific subtype oligonucleotide probes. The results showed that in 15 relapsed cases the HPV types of 6 cases were different from those of original ones,and 4 of them were.of new types. The data support new infections are responsible for the recurrence.

Key words: Condyloma acuminata, Polymerase chain reaction, Papillomavirus