[Quantification of proteinthiols in morphologically normal basal cells and pathological squamous cells of the cervix uteri]

Abstract

Smears taken from eight probands with carcinoma in situ or invasive carcinoma of the cervix uteri have been stained with DDD and Fast Blue B. The extinctions microspectrometrically measured at 560 nm are directly proportional to the quantity of protein-SH-groups. The extinctions of the total cell (Eges) and of the cell nucleus (EK) are measured in 67 basal cells (BAS), 78 dysplatic cells (DYS), 122 undifferentiated cancer cells (UNIF) and 89 differentiated cancer cells (POLY). From BAS through DYS and UNIF to POLY EK increases by a total of 176%. In all four cell types investigated, linear correlations between EK and Eges have been found to occur with a probability of over 99%. The straight lines ascertained represent a relation between EK and Eges which is obviously very characteristic for each cell type, and it becomes apparent that the measuring points corresponding to each single cell are in each instance so close to the straight line that in most cases a differentiation of the three pathological cell types is possible even without a morphological criterion. The straight lines corresponding to BAS, DYS and UNIF start from a common origin, whereas the straight line corresponding to POLY branches off from the UNIF line only. This is in accordance with the formal genesis of pathological variants observed in the cervical squamous epithelium or in differentiated carcinomas of the squamous epithelium respectively.