The sex chromatin and heterochromatic bodies in human diploid and polyploid nuclei

Abstract

The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) content of Feulgen-stained interphase nuclei from human amnion epithelium and liver parenchyma as well as the DNA content of their sex chromatin or heterochromatic bodies was determined histophotometrically. In female nuclei the ratio between the nuclear DNA content and that of their sex chromatin or heterochromatic bodies remains constant irrespective of the polyploid state of the nucleus. Thus, in polyploid nuclei the heterochromatic bodies double their DNA content with each duplication of the diploid nuclear DNA content. Therefore, it is assumed that the large or multiple heterochromatic bodies of female polyploid nuclei are conjugated or multiple sex chromatin bodies. Some male diploid nuclei show a distinct heterochromatic body whose DNA content is about one-half that of a sex chromatin. About one-half of the polyploid male nuclei have heterochromatic bodies whose DNA content is approximately one-half of those of female nuclei of the corresponding polyploid class. This would indicate that in male diploid nuclei the single X chromosome sometimes leaves a heterochromatic rest one-half the size of a sex chromatin and in polyploid male nuclei the two or more X's may leave larger heterochromatic bodies. However, many male nuclei, even when polyploid, do not have distinct heterochromatic bodies. Possibly the heterochromatic portions of the X's have failed to join and form a sex chromatin-like body; or the Y inhibits the X from leaving a heterochromatic rest. The proposal of other authors that the sex chromatin is derived from but one of the X chromosomes of the female nucleus, the X in the male leaving no heterochromatic rest, is also considered. The DNA content does not vary significantly between nuclei with and without sex chromatin or heterochromatic bodies. It remains clear that female nuclei with abnormally large or multiple sex chromatin bodies and male nuclei with large distinct heterochromatic bodies are always polyploid.