Ex vivo analyses of ano-genital wart lymphocytes to study the human papillomavirus immune response.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the causative agent of certain benign and malignant tumours. HPV subtypes 6 and 11 cause approximately 90% of cases of genital warts(the most common sexually transmitted disease) (1, 2) and virtually all cases of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis(3, 4). They are classified as low-risk for carcinogenesis, whilst the high-risk subtypes, such as 16 and 18, cause approximately 70% of cases of cervical cancer worldwide (5, 6). There has been intense public interest recently in the HPV prophylactic vaccines for the prevention of cervical cancer (7, 8). Since HPV infectionis primarily a peripheral in-fection (and not a systemic one), the study of the im-mune response at the site of infection is a necessity in understandingand designingbetter therapies. We have examined the feasibility of studying the lymphocytes infiltratingano- genital wartsas a model for studying HPV infectionand associated immune responses in the periphery.MATerIAl AND MeTHoDS