[Evaluation of p16INK4a and Ki-67 proteins expression in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and their correlation with HPV-HR infection].

OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to evaluate the expression of p16INK4A and Ki-67 in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and to correlate the high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection with these two biomarkers.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: Sixty patients were included in our study. All of the patient underwent colposcopy-guided biopsy to asses the grade of CIN. For the immunohistochemistry exam we used p161NK4A and Ki-67 antibody and their expression was semiquantitatively classified in 4 classes: 0, 1, 2 and 3. HPV genotyping was used to detect high-risk HPV.

RESULTS: 7 of our cases were benign (11.66%); 18 cases presented CIN1 (30%), 14 cases CIN2 (23.33%), 16 cases CIN3 (26.66%) and 5 cases invasive squamous cell carcinoma (8.33%). We observed that the expression of p16INK4A and Ki-67 were positively associated with CIN grade, p161NK4A expressions increased significantly with high-risk HPV infection. We observed a positive correlation between the expression of the p16INK4A and Ki-67.

CONCLUSION: In our study, the expression of p16 and Ki-67 were positively related to the CIN grade. p16INK4A expressions of high-risk HPV specimens significantly increased more than Ki-67. Therefore, in the diagnosis of CIN and high-risk HPV infection, p16INK4A can be a useful biomarker.