The purpose of our prospective, case-controlled study was to investigate the hypothesis that women who are genetically programmed to produce high or medium levels of IL-10 were more likely to develop cancer of the uterine cervix than individuals genetically predisposed to low IL-10 production. The population was recruited from patients attending gynecological clinics at 2 hospitals in Harare, Zimbabwe. Laboratory tests were performed in the Departments of Immunology, Chemical Pathology and Medical Microbiology, Medical School, University of Zimbabwe, and simultaneously at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Included in our study were 77 women with histologically proven cancer of the uterine cervix and 69 age-and parity-matched healthy women. All of the patients and healthy controls were from the Shona ethnic group that inhabits northern Zimbabwe. DNA was purified from cervical cytobrush samples obtained from women with cervical cancer. Control DNA was extracted from urine or peripheral blood samples from the healthy women. The Qiagen DNA extraction kit was used. Detection of allele A and/or G at ؊1082 in the promoter region of the IL-10 gene was carried out using the ARMS-PCR technique. Polymorphism in the amplified products was detected by gel electrophoresis in the presence of ethidium bromide and were bands visualized under UV light. The data comprise 77 women who developed invasive cervical cancer and 69 healthy women matched for age and parity. Patients with cancer were significantly (p ‫؍‬ 0.001) more likely to be predisposed to produce higher (A/G) levels of IL-10. The genotype encoding for high (G/G) production of IL-10 was only observed in one cancer patient. The prevalence of low producers of IL-10 in the cancer group was significantly lower than in the healthy women. There were no high producers amongst the healthy women. These data suggest that the genetically acquired ability to produce higher levels of IL-10 may be a significant factor in the development of cervical cancer.

Morphological chorioamnionitis occurred 2.6 times more often in women with stillbirths than in women with live births. In 9% of stillbirths the infant showed an inflammatory response. Thus the infant was alive when the infection occurred and it is therefore reasonable to assume that infection was the cause of death.

No abstract

Despite the high prevalence of both human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and cervical cancer among Zimbabwean women, the ability to test for HPV infection of the uterine cervix is limited by a lack of an easy sample collection method that does not require gynecological examination. The presence of HPVs in urine and cervical swab samples collected from 43 women who presented with invasive cervical cancer was investigated. HPV detection was done by means of degenerate primers in a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Typing of HPVs was done using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. HPV was identified and typed in 98% (42/43) of cervical swabs and 72% (31/43) of paired urine samples. HPV type 16 was the most common (25/42, 59%), followed by types: 33 (13/42, 31%), 18 (6/42, 14%), and 31 (1/42, 2%). Type-specific concordance between cervical and urine samples was high (22/28, 79%). Therefore, the HPV types identified in urine samples in most cases represent the same HPV type infecting the cervical epithelium. The results suggest that urine may be a practical sample for testing of HPV urogenital infection. Further research is required before the detection of HPV in urine can be applied in the routine cervical screening programs.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the hypothesis that the genetically programmed ability to produce low, medium, or high levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), as determined by TNF-alpha promoter polymorphism at position 308, influenced the development of cancer of the uterine cervix. The population was recruited from patients attending gynecological clinics at two teaching hospitals in Harare, Zimbabwe. Laboratory tests were performed in the Departments of Immunology and Medical Microbiology, Medical School, University of Zimbabwe. One hundred and three patients with invasive cancer of the uterine cervix and 101 healthy women were included in the study. All patients and healthy controls were from the Shona ethnic groups that inhabit northern Zimbabwe. DNA was purified from cervical cytobrush samples obtained from women with cervical cancer. In random cases a second DNA sample was extracted from patient blood. Control DNA was extracted from urine or peripheral blood samples from the healthy women. Detection of allele A and /or G at the 308 position in the promoter region of the TNF-alpha gene was carried out using the amplification refractory mutation system-polymerase chain reaction (ARMS-PCR) technique. Polymorphism in the amplified products was detected by gel electrophoresis. There was no statistically significant difference in the distribution of the low (G) or high (A) producer alleles at position 308 of the TNF-alpha gene between patients with cervical cancer and healthy women. The high producer haplotype AA was identified in only one patient with cervical cancer and two healthy women. These data suggest that the genetically acquired ability to produce higher levels of TNF-alpha is present in a minority of women with or without cervical cancer in the Zimbabwean population. Homozygosity for allele 308A is very rare. High-producer allele 308A as well as high-producer haplotypes AA is significantly less common in a Zimbabwean population than in a European population.