title: Lymphoproliferative responses to human papillomaviruses in patients with cutaneous warts.
abstract: In vitro lymphoproliferative responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with cutaneous warts, caused by infection with human papillomavirus type 1 (HPV-1) or type 2 (HPV-2), were assayed during the course of treatment. Purified HPV-1 and HPV-2 were used as antigens, as well as herpes simplex virus (HSV) and concanavalin A (Con A). All patients had normal percentages of subsets within the PBMC population and normal lymphoproliferative responses to Con A, and those with a clinical history of HSV infections had positive lymphoproliferative responses to HSV. Responses to both HPV antigens were poor. Only 10 of 100 assays of PBMC from 26 patients showed a stimulation index greater than 2. Addition of interleukin 2 made little difference in most cases. No correlation of clinical status of warts, i.e. improving, unchanged or resolved, with lymphoproliferation was found. When the PBMC were depleted of plastic-adherent cells and enriched for T cells, some samples which had not shown a lymphoproliferative response to HPV-1 or HPV-2 became positive; this response was abolished when the adherent cells were re-added. Thus it is possible that the adherent cell population from a proportion of patients contains cells which suppress lymphoproliferation, or that an immunoregulatory network is present so that lymphoproliferation does not take place in vitro without prior activation and cloning of T cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Edinburgh Medical School, U.K.
authors.forename: F C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Charleson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Norval
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Benton
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hunter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003208:Concanavalin A / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005533:Foot Dermatoses / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006229:Hand Dermatoses / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular / Q000276:immunology; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000276:immunology*; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014860:Warts / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D003208:Concanavalin A