Intraepithelial neoplasia, human papilloma virus infection and argyrophilic nucleoprotein in cervical epithelium.

A silver colloid technique was applied to 50 colposcopic biopsies of cervix. These comprised nine cases of wart virus infection of the cervix, 11 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) I, nine cases of CIN II, eight cases of CIN III, seven normal biopsies and six cases showing only incomplete squamous metaplasia. The mean numbers of argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORS) increased from CIN I to CIN III. Statistically significant differences for AgNORs were found in comparisons between CIN III, normal basal cells, human papilloma virus-infected basal cells and incomplete squamous metaplasia, and in comparisons between normal basal cells and human papilloma virus-infected basal cells. CIN III could be distinguished from incomplete squamous metaplasia and from basal cells and from human papilloma virus-infected basal cells. The latter could be distinguished from normal basal cells on the basis of their AgNORs. It is suggested that this simple technique is diagnostically useful and has considerable clinicopathological potential in cervical pathology and cytology.