P40.14
Background: Women with persistent HPV-infections are at increased risk for developing cervical cancer. Clearance of HPV-infections has been associated with genital inflammation. HPV- infection has been shown as a risk factor for HIV acquisition along with genital inflammation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of genital tract inflammation and HPV persistence or clearance in HIV negative women.
Methods: Cervical samples were collected from 38 HIV-negative women at two time points, six months apart. IL-8, IL-6, IL-10, IL-15, IL-12p40, IP-10, MCP-1, MIP-1a, MIP-1b, IL-1a, IL-1b, eotaxin, fractalkine, and G-CSF concentrations were measured by Luminex at enrollment. HPV types were assessed at both time points using the Roche Linear Array HPV Genotyping assay.
Results: There were 20/38 HPV-infected women at enrollment [9/38 had high-risk (HR) and 11/38 had low-risk (LR) HPV types]. An additional 7 women acquired an HPV infection over the 6 months of follow-up. Of the 20 women initially infected with HPV, only 2/20 cleared their infections while 18/20 had infections that persisted for 6 months. Women with HR HPV at enrollment generally had higher cytokine concentrations in their genital tracts than women with LR types, although none of the cytokine evaluated were significantly different between groups. Women acquiring an HPV infection over 6 months had lower overall genital inflammation at enrolment compared to women who remained HPV-negative (p=0.005). In contrast, women with persistent HPV infections generally had increased inflammation at enrolment compared to women who remained negative (p=0.049).
Conclusions: Although HPV infection has been associated with increased risk for HIV infection, we found that HPV infections generally did not cause an inflammatory response in the female genital tract.
