The uterine cervical neoplasia is one of the most frequent gynecologic tumor in Korean women. Though the precise pathogenic mechanisms were not elucidated, human papillomaviruses (HPVs) has been considered as a strong candidate for the cause of uterine cervical neoplasm.

About 100 subtypes of HPV were known, and they were divided into two groups as "high-risk HPVs" and "low-risk HPVs" according to their oncogenic potentialities. It was known that arginine (Arg) residue at codon 72 of p53 tumor suppressor gene could be used as a marker for the risk of cervical epithelial neoplasia associated human appilloma virus infection. But the notions are still controversal. Studies to date have focused mainly on Caucasians despite marked ethnic variations in both the p53 polymorphism and the different genotypes of human papillomavirus associated with cervical neoplasia. In this study, the p53 codon 72 status in 125 Korean women with cervical neoplasia and 200 Korean healthy women was determined. In addition, the different genotypes of human papillomavirus associated with cervical neoplasia was also determined by DNA Chip.

The most frequent subtypes of HPV associated with uterine cervical neoplasia in Korean women were 16 (25.6%), 58 (16%), other type (10.4%), 52 (10%) and 18 (4.8%) in order of frequency. The polymorphic rate of p53 codon 72 in 200 Korean women was Arg/Ar (47%), Arg/Pro (43%) and Pro/Pro (10%) respectively. The polymorphic rate of p53 codon 72 in HPV associated uterine cervical neoplasia was Arg/Ar (55.5%), Arg/Pro (38.9%) and Pro/Pro (5.50%) respectively, which was not statistically significant compared to the normal control. In 16/18 genotypes associated cervical neoplasia, the polymorphic rate of p53 codon 72 was 44.8% (Arg/Arg), 42.1% (Arg/Pro) and 13.1% (Pro/Pro) respectively, while in 58/52/other type/33/35/40/44 genotypes, it was 36.5% (Arg/Arg), 50% (Ar/Pro), and 13.5% (Pro/Pro) respectively. There was no statistical significance between two groups.

Above results showed that the genotypes of HPV associated with uterine cervical neoplasia in Korean women were different from those of Western countries, and there was not significant difference between the polymorphism of p53 codon 72 and genotypes of HPV associated with uterine epithelial neoplasia.