Immunoglobulin-containing plasma cells recruited to cervical neoplasia.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the number and isotype of immunoglobulin (Ig)-containing cells that infiltrate various stages of cervical neoplasia from no lesion to invasive cancer.


METHODS
By three-color immunofluorescent microscopy, the number and isotype of stromal plasma cells were determined for 91 specimens representing a spectrum of cervical epithelial neoplasia as follows: no lesion (n = 12), koilocytic atypia (n = 13), mild dysplasia (n = 21), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL; n = 22), and invasive carcinoma (n = 23).


RESULTS
The Ig-positive cell counts were markedly increased under the low-grade SIL. Specifically, the mean number of IgG-positive plasma cells was significantly increased (P < .003) under the subepithelial stroma of mild dysplasia as compared with no SIL, high-grade SIL, or invasive carcinoma. These immunocyte infiltrates were clustered in the stroma beneath koilocytes, which also demonstrated IgG-positive intracellular staining.


CONCLUSIONS
Low-grade cervical lesions are infiltrated by IgG plasma cells to a greater extent than high-grade or invasive cervical lesions, suggesting that antibody responses are preferentially recruited in early cervical neoplasia, giving credence to the concept that low-grade lesions represent a human papillomavirus infection of the cervix rather than a neoplastic condition.
Edwards
R P
RP
Department of Microbiology, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center, USA.
Pitts
A
A
Crowley-Nowick
P
P
Partridge
E E
EE
Gore
H
H
Mestecky
J
J
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis*; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D010950:Plasma Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology
D007074:Immunoglobulin G