Abstract: In situ hybridization is a valuable method for the demonstration of the presence, localization and distribution of viral DNAS within frozen histological sections or paraffin embedded sections. Using biotin-lablled HPV6/11 DNA and HPV16/18 DNA as prodes, we studied specimens from condyloma acuminata and cervical carcinoma with in situ hybridization method. It has been shown that most of the condyloma acuminata specimens contained HPV6/11 DNA So the etiologic factor of condyloma acuminata may be HPV6/11. The HPV 6/11 DNA positive nuclei mainly located in the upper part of the epithelium, with some scattering in the deeper part. This suggests that HPV6/11 may first infect deeper part of the epithelium and the replication of viral DNA is completed in the upper part. A few condyloma acuminata patients appeared to have mixed infection, containing both HPV6/11 DNA and HPV16/18 DNA. These patients were probably at the risk of progression to carcinoma. With regard to cervical carcinoma, a high proportion of these patients contained HPV16/18 DNA. This suggests that the major etiologic factor of cervical carcinoma may be HPV 16/18. Some patients infected with both HPV 16/18 and HPV6/11. In a few cases, HPV 16/18 DNA were not found, there should be other factors responsible for the malignancy of this kind of patients.

Key words: DNA probe, in situ hybridization, condyloma acuminata, cervical carcinoma, HPV