ANTIGENS OF HUMAN WART TISSUE.

Experimental animal tumors caused by papova viruses contain cellular antigens which relate to tumor rejection. A similar mechanism may account for the spontaneous resolution of human warts. We examined the antigenic composition of human wart tissue using rabbit antisera prepared to crude wart homogenates. The antisera were absorbed with pooled human plasma and liver extract prior to indirect immunofluorescent experiments. The absorbed antisera produced fluorescent staining of the nucleii and cell surfaces of epidermal cells in warts obtained from different patients, and did not react with normal skin. A single band of precipitation was detected when the antisera was reacted in agarose gel diffusion with an aqueous extract of wart tissue. The antisera also reacted with the nuclei and cell surfaces of keratoacanthomas and sqamous cell carcinomas but not based cell carcinomas. All immunological reactivity was eliminated after exhaustive absorption with pooled extracts of normal epidermis. These studies demonstrate cellular antigens of human wart tissue which are present in normal tissue and markedly increased in warts and certain epidermal tumors. These antigens appear to be organspecific and similar in distribution to the epidermal antigen of pemphigus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]