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VALUE OF FREE METAPHASE CELL PREPARATIONS IN CYTOPHOTOMETRIC STUDY OF EXPERIMENTAL SKIN CARCINOGENESIS
Author(s) -
Alavaikko Martti
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
acta pathologica microbiologica scandinavica section a pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0365-4184
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1974.tb03836.x
Subject(s) - feulgen stain , metaphase , carcinogen , carcinogenesis , epidermis (zoology) , cell , chemistry , cell cycle , dna , microbiology and biotechnology , pathology , biology , biochemistry , anatomy , medicine , chromosome , gene
The following topics are presented: 1) an enzymatic method for selective separation of hyperplastic epidermis from hair‐bearing mice and its dissociation into free cell preparations rich in metaphase cells, 2) a quantitative cytochemical test (cytofluorometric determination of Feulgen‐DNA) on the retainment of Feulgen reactivity by the dissociated cells, and 3) an example of the application of the method to investigating chemical skin carcinogenesis. It is possible by this method to assay cytophotometrically the DNA of epidermal cells at the same phase of the generative cycle. It turned out that the DNA content of epidermal metaphase cells in the group of mice treated with a carcinogen and mechanical irritation (3 weeks) was significantly greater than the corresponding value of the group which received only acetone and mechanical irritation. This seems to suggest that a treatment with a carcinogen causes fairly early changes in the nuclear material of the germinative tissue. The method described offers new possibilities for quantitative cytochemical characterization of the nuclear changes associated with experimental carcinogenesis, because it eliminates the sources of error normally present in section preparations and the problems of interpretation caused by the cell cycle, and permits the use of cytofluorometry, a method considerably more sensitive than absorption cytophotometry.