The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) belongs to the Papillomaviridae family and has a capsid and a single DNA strand. Its infection occurs mainly through sexual intercourse, having an important tropism for skin and mucosal cells. AIM: To evaluate the HPV presence in normal oral mucosa of asymptomatic subjects and; in parallel, to correlate social behavioral habits with the virus. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Contemporary cohort cross-sectional study. The HPV was found by PCR, using general primers MY09/11 in 125 oral mucosa samples submitted to DNA extraction and PCR to search for the beta-globin gene in order to assess the quality of the extracted DNA. In parallel, we carried out a study of behavioral issues associated with the patients. RESULTS: All the samples had a positive diagnosis of the beta-hemoglobin gene. HPV was diagnosed in 23.2% of the samples analyzed. CONCLUSION: The virus was present in 29 of the 125 patients, without them having any clinical-pathological manifestation associated with the HPV. As to the social behavior of the patients, we concluded that oral sex is statistically correlated to the virus, and besides the HPV has been statistically more present in female patients.
mouth mucosa; papillomavirus infections; polymerase chain reaction
