ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the relationship between the amplification of human telomerase reverse tran-scriptase (hTERT) gene and high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infections in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical carcinoma. Methods The cervical epithelial cells were collected from 34 samples of normal cervical epithelium, 31 samples of CIN (gradeⅠ), 33 samples of CIN (gradeⅡ), 34 samples of CIN (gradeⅢ) and 20 samples of cer-vical carcinoma. HPV DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction-reverse dot blot hybridization (PCR-RDB) and the amplification of hTERT gene was detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Results Twenty subtypes of HR-HPV were detected including HPV16, 18, 26, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 53, 56, 58, 59, 66, 67, 68, 69, 73 and 82. The inci-dence of HR-HPV infection was higher in CINⅡgroup (72.73%), CINⅢgroup (85.29%) and cervical carcinoma group (90.00%) than that of normal cervical epithelium group (20.59%). There was no significant difference in the positive rate of HR-HPV DNA between CINⅠ group (54.84%) and normal cervical epithelium group (P < 0.005). The positive rate of hTERT gene amplification was higher in cervical carcinoma group (80.00%) than that of normal cervical epithelium group (0). There were no significant differences in the positive rates of hTERT gene amplification between CINⅠgroup ( 3.22%), CIN Ⅱ group (18.18%), cervical carcinoma group and CIN Ⅲ group (41.18%). There was positive correlation between hTERT gene amplification and HR-HPV infection (r=0.238, P<0.05). Conclusion The incidence of HR-HPV infection was positively correlated with hTERT gene amplification in cervical lesions. HR-HPV infection may be an early event of ab-normal amplification of hTERT gene. The detection of HPV-DNA and hTERT gene can be used in the clinical diagnosis of early cervical lesions.