title: Eyebrow hairs from actinic keratosis patients harbor the highest number of cutaneous human papillomaviruses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cutaneous human papillomavirus (HPV) infections seem to be associated with the onset of actinic keratosis (AK). This study compares the presence of cutaneous HPV types in eyebrow hairs to those in tissues of normal skin and skin lesions of 75 immunocompetent AK patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Biopsies from AK lesions, normal skin and plucked eyebrow hairs were collected from each patient. DNA from these specimens was tested for the presence of 28 cutaneous HPV (betaPV and gammaPV) by a PCR based method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The highest number of HPV prevalence was detected in 84% of the eyebrow hairs (63/75, median 6 types) compared to 47% of AK lesions (35/75, median 3 types) (p< 0.001) and 37% of normal skin (28/75, median 4 types) (p< 0.001), respectively. A total of 228 HPV infections were found in eyebrow hairs compared to only 92 HPV infections in AK and 69 in normal skin. In all three specimens HPV20, HPV23 and/or HPV37 were the most prevalent types. The highest number of multiple types of HPV positive specimens was found in 76% of the eyebrow hairs compared to 60% in AK and 57% in normal skin. The concordance of at least one HPV type in virus positive specimens was 81% (three specimens) and 88-93% of all three combinations with two specimens.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, eyebrow hairs revealed the highest number of cutaneous HPV infections, are easy to collect and are an appropriate screening tool in order to identify a possible association of HPV and AK.
authors.affiliation: Charité, Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Allergy, Skin Cancer Center Charité, University Hospital of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Mandy D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Lehmann
authors.forename: Vlada
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kogosov
authors.forename: Eggert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stockfleth
authors.forename: Ingo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nindl
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001706:Biopsy; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005138:Eyebrows / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D055623:Keratosis, Actinic / Q000150:complications* / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012867:Skin / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral