Detection of herpes simplex virus type‐2 DNA restriction fragments in human cervical carcinoma tissue

DNA extracted from eight human cervical carcinomas, one lymph node metastasis and related control tissue was examined for the presence of herpes simplex virus (HSV) DNA sequences. Southern blot transfers of tumour and control DNA were hybridised with radioactively labelled cloned probes representing 70% of the HSV‐2 genome. Specific hybridisation to HSV DNA sequences was observed in one of eight carcinoma tissues analysed. Hybridisation of HSV‐2 DNA probes to BamHI and XhoI restriction enzyme fragments of tumour cell DNA which co‐migrated with authentic HSV‐2 viral fragments identified co‐linear HSV‐2 DNA sequences comprising 3% of the HSV‐2 genome, between map coordinates 0.582 and 0.612. The remaining eight tumour and all control tissues analysed, showed no specific hybridisation to any of the probes used at levels of sensitivity which would detect 0.5 copies/cell of HSV‐2 DNA restriction fragments of 2 kb or greater.