Mitochondrial C150T polymorphism increases the risk of cervical cancer and HPV infection

During a survey of control region (D-loop) sequence variances in 142 cervical cancer (CC) patients and 136 controls, all Chinese women, including both HPV-positive (human papillomavirus) and HPV-negative subjects, we determined that the C150T polymorphism increased the CC risk in a case-control study (OR = 3.0, 95% CI = 1.8-5.0, P < 0.05). HPV-positive individuals were more likely to carry the C150T polymorphism than HPV-negative controls (OR = 5.8, 95% CI = 2.6-13.2, P = 2.3 × 10− 5). HPV-positive CC patients were more likely to carry the C150T polymorphism than HPV-negative controls (OR = 4.9, 95% CI = 2.6-9.3, P = 9.9 × 10− 7). In all subjects, an increased risk of HPV infection was also associated with the C150T polymorphism (OR = 4.5, 95% CI = 2.5-8.1, P = 6.6 × 10− 7). However, no significant difference in the frequency of other alleles was found at the variable sites in D146, D152, D310 and D514. These results indicated that the C150T polymorphism increased the risk of HPV infection and CC progression. Additionally, we assessed the association of mtDNA copy number with CC risk or the C150T polymorphism in 45 CC patients and 43 controls. There was no significant association of mtDNA copy number with CC risk or the C150T polymorphism. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to suggest that mtDNA C150T polymorphism was positively associated with HPV infection and subsequent CC risk among Chinese women.