KDR and cervicitis: Therefore, to test whether any of the HPV-related changes in keratinocyte gene expression that we detected could have potential as HPV-associated cervical disease biomarkers, we quantified levels of expression of three upregulated and three downregulated genes (encoding two regulators of the inflammatory response [IL-1β, SERPINB3], two proteins involved in cell signaling [KDR, VTCN1], and two involved in barrier function [KRT10, DSG]) by qRT-PCR in liquid-based cytology (LBC; Pap smear) samples.