[Behavior of nucleolar organizers in the normal cervix, human papilloma virus infection and cervico-uterine cancer].

Thirty five cervical biopsies were divided into four groups: 5 cases normal cervix, 10 cases with papillomavirus without atypias (HPVIO), 10 cases with human papillomavirus with atypias (HPVIA) and 10 cases with squamous carcinoma. With the colloidal silver technique, the proteins associated with nucleolar organizers were stained; they were found to increase significantly in number in the groups studied being lowest in the normal cervix and highest in the biopsies with carcinoma. The number of nucleolar organizers in HPVIO in our study was found to be similar to that in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia I (CIN I), according to Egan and the number in HPVIA similar to that in CIN II, suggesting that HPVIO is a low risk lesion and HPVIA a high risk lesion for cervical carcinoma.