Our study aimed to determine a large spectrum of β-HPV types in BCC this website of immunocompetent patients by comparing the HPV analysis in the lesional and perilesional skin as well as to investigate whether less invasive

technique like forehead swab can be predictive of the HPV presence in skin tumors. In addition, in order to evaluate the role of β-HPV in neoplastic proliferation, the expression of two host genes, p16INK4a and Akt, were investigated. The expression pattern of p16INK4a in dysplastic squamous and glandular cervical cells in tissue sections and in cervical smears has been extensively investigated and linked

[16, 17] to anogenital α-HPV gene expression. The same α-HPVs are also able to interact with the Akt pathway [18]. Cutaneous HPVs can modulate epidermal Akt activity using the same mechanisms as anogenital HPVs with the differences that β-HPV downregulates the Akt1 during infection and do not affect the up-regulation of the Akt2 isoform during cancerogenesis. Indeed Akt activity is associated SRT2104 order with stratum corneum function [19], and it was reported that cutaneous HPVs also modulate stratum corneum properties acting through Akt1 down-regulation. However few data reported the involvement of β HPV, p16INK4a and Akt expression in BCC and therefore in the present study their see more possible relationships were investigated. Methods Patients The patients enrolled in the study were attending Department of Dermatology-Oncology of San Gallicano Institute (IRCCS) of Rome, Italy. This study was approved by the local medical ethical committee and patients signed an informed consent. In brief all patients answered a standardized PI-1840 interview and underwent a physical examination. During physical examination, the dermatologist

recorded the skin type (Fitzpatrick’s Scale), the possible presence of skin cancers and their anatomical localization (Table 1). Only the patients with histological confirmed skin cancer were further evaluated. In brief, 37 paraffin-embedded blocks, microscopically diagnosed as BCC by expert pathologists were analyzed at the Regina Elena National Cancer Institute (IRCCS) of Rome, Italy. Safe margin was defined as a part of perilesional skin that had no evidence of involvement by BCC. This group was considered as controls. In addition, from the same patients material by forehead swab was obtained, recovered in 1 ml of preservCyt medium (Cytyc Corp., Rome, Italy), and stored at 4°C until analysed. Table 1 Molecular analysis of BCC.