Open AccessComparison of the Papanicolaou and Feulgen staining methods for DNA quantification by image analysis
Author(s) -
Gurley A. M.,
Hidvegi D. F.,
Bacus J. W.,
Bacus S. S.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
cytometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1097-0320
pISSN - 0196-4763
DOI - 10.1002/cyto.990110404
Subject(s) - feulgen stain , papanicolaou stain , staining , dna , pathology , cytology , biology , densitometry , stain , medicine , cancer , genetics , cervical cancer
The possibility of using archival cytology material to study the evolution of neoplastic disease with regard to DNA content abnormalities was investigated. The accuracy of measuring the integrity optical density (OD) of nuclei that correlates to DNA amounts of those nuclei, on slides stained by the Papanicolaou method, was assessed and compared with a standard Feulgen method. Our data on rat liver nuclei peritoneal washings from patients with ovarian cystadenofibromas and ovarian cystadenocarcinomas suggested that analysis of cytological material using the Papanicolaou method is not reliable and that destaining the slides followed by Feulgen staining provides an optimal and reliable method of DNA quantification.