COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF DELAYED-HYPERSENSITIVITY SKIN REACTIONS AND ANTIBODIES TO HUMAN PAPILLOMA-VIRUS (HPV)

Abstract

Purified HPV was prepared from plantar warts, inactivated by formalin, adjusted to 1010 particles/0.1 ml and used in i.d. tests (IDT) on 120 patients having warts at that time or having had warts in the past. Controls (63) were used. Antibodies were evaluated in the sera from most of the patients by the indirect immunofluorescence (IF) test before and after skin tests. Results showed a specific delayed-hypersensitivity reaction (DHR) to HPV, especially in patients with regressing or past warts (76%). DHR was most frequent in patients with a wart of 6 mo.-2 yr duration (77.0-68.8%) and persisted much longer than antibodies, which disappeared with the passage of time. The incidence of antibodies was much higher after IDT in patients with a positive reaction, thus suggesting a booster effect.