Human papillomaviruses (HPV) in tissue specimens of oral squamous cell papillomas and normal oral mucosa.

BACKGROUND: The etiology of oral squamous cell papillomas (OSCP) is still unresolved.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) was examined, using PCR and three different consensus primers, in tissue specimens obtained from 49 patients with OSCP and 49 tissue specimens of histologically-normal oral mucosa obtained from the same number of individuals, who matched the patients with OSCP in age, gender and localization of the obtained tissue specimens.

RESULTS: Amplifiable DNA was recovered from 44 out of 49 and 45 out of 49 tissue specimens of OSCP and normal oral mucosa, respectively. HPV-6 was detected in three and HPV-16 in one out of 44 OSCP specimens tested. Three tissue specimens of normal oral mucosa were HPV DNA-positive, harboring HPV-6, HPV-11 and HPV-31.

CONCLUSION: Since no significant difference in the prevalence of HPV DNA between the patients with OSCP and the control subjects (9.1% vs. 6.7%; p=0.694) was observed, HPV is deemed to play a limited role in the etiology of OSCP, at least in Europe.