In mammalian embryos, male and female external genitalia develop from the genital tubercle. Outgrowth of the genital tubercle is maintained by the urethral epithelium, and it has been reported that Fgf8 mediates this activity. To test directly whether Fgf8 is required for external genital development, we conditionally removed Fgf8 from the cloacal/urethral epithelium. Surprisingly, Fgf8 is not ...

Transcription of the E6-E7 genes of human papillomavirus type 11 (HPV-11), HPV-16 and HPV-18 is specific to epithelial cells. This mechanism originates from synergism between different transcription factors such as AP-1, NFI and Sp1, which occur in many different cell types, but whose activity is biased in favour of epithelial cells. In this study, the transcriptional regulation of 14 different...

Malformations of the external genitalia are among the most common congenital anomalies in humans. The urogenital and anorectal sinuses develop from the embryonic cloaca, and the penis and clitoris develop from the genital tubercle. Within the genital tubercle, the endodermally derived urethral epithelium functions as an organizer and expresses sonic hedgehog (Shh). Shh knockout mice lack extern...

Chronic infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) causes more than 300,000 cases of genital warts and nearly 26,000 new cancers in the United States each year, incurring costs of around $8 billion annually. Preventing most of these cases of disease through widespread HPV vaccination is a singular opportunity that the United States is largely missing. Human papillomavirus vaccination is low in t...

Morphological description of sand,flies has remained a neglected area. The different organs used in taxonomy have not yet been described adequatelAy with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We have examined the external genital structures offemales of three Old World phlebotomine sand,flies under SEMand recorded the morphological variations of the organs. We have,found the,female external g...

Genital warts affect 1% of the sexually active U.S. population and are commonly seen in primary care. Human papillomavirus types 6 and 11 are responsible for most genital warts. Warts vary from small, flat-topped papules to large, cauliflower-like lesions on the anogenital mucosa and surrounding skin. Diagnosis is clinical, but atypical lesions should be confirmed by histology. Treatments may b...

Imiquimod (IQ) has been successfully used in treatment of genital warts. In clinical settings, patients responded well but wart reduction rates varied. Our aim was to find a correlation between clinical responses and pretreatment (constitutive) levels of genes that might be involved in the molecular action of IQ. Since IQ is a cytokine inducer, we analyzed levels of expression of genes of the J...

WHILE the pathology and virology of human skin warts have received considerable attention in the last few years, little work has been done to establish the relationship of genital warts to warts in general, or even to establish if these lesions are of viral origin. The viral aetiology of the human skin wart (verruca vulgaris, plana, and plantaris) is now well established. By use of the electron...