A Quantitative Comparison Between Normal and Carcinomatous Squamous Epithelia of the Uterine Cervix

Abstract

Summary.-The object of this study was to measure some of the differences between normal squamous epithelial cells and cells from invasive squamous carcinoma of the uterine cervix. A total of 107 patients were studied; only those specimens which when assessed by a histopathologist were thought to show classic normal features or undoubted invasive carcinoma were included in the quantitative analysis. In addition, any specimens which at the electron microscope level, showed faulty sampling or preparation were discarded, leaving us with 16 carcinoma and 15 normal specimens for detailed study.The nuclei of tumour cells had a greater area than those of normal cells; histograms of the size distribution of nuclei showed a distinctly different pattern in the 2 groups. Tumour cells had fewer ribosomes in each cubic micron of cytoplasm than had the normal cells and showed a reduction in the amount of intercellular space; in addition, the malignant cells had a smaller surface density and fewer tonofibrils in their cytoplasm. Some tumour cells had a smaller percentage of cell membrane specialized as desmosomes than the corresponding normal cells but all tumour cells had desmosomes of shorter length than normal. Discriminatory analysis, carried out with the help of a computer, allowed all of these variables to be assessed with respect to each other in order to arrive at a numerical score for each specimen. When expressed graphically, these scores showed that the populations of normal and carcinomatous cells fell into 2 separate groups. The significance of these results is discussed.

A study of the morphological parameters of cervical squamous epithelium

“…The reason for this increase is not well understood, but it is thought to be related to cell degeneration, as cellular debris can be observed in the enlarged spaces between cells (Sugar 1968). The one exception to this generally observed trend of increased ECS in abnormal tissue was reported by Wiernik et al (1973), who employed stereological techniques to analyse a number of tissue parameters in the basal part of fixed normal and carcinogenous cervical epithelium. In this case, a greater mean extracellular volume was observed in the normal controls than in the cancerous tissue.…”

A study of desmosomes in colorectal carcinoma

“…Certain morphometric analyses have concluded that a reduction in desmosomal number correlates with invasive behaviour (Alroy et al, 1981;Pauli et al, 1978;Schindler et al, 1981) while others have not substantiated this interpretation (Luzi et al, 1987;Wiernik et al, 1973). However, electron microscopical studies are necessarily based on small samples of tissue from each tumour and relatively small numbers of tumours.…”

Commercial image analysers and the characterization of microscopical images

“…Such size distribution histograms may provide valuable information to characterize a population of, for example, nerve fibres by plotting the change in the size spectrum of their areas during the process of growth (Stanmore et al, 1978;Holland, 1978). Measurcments of nuclear size changes can be valuable when the development of malignancy is being studied (Wiernik et al, 1973) and measurements of alveolar wall thickness (Langston & Thurlbeck, 1978) are of interest to respiratory physiologists. Many other examples could be cited, some of which are referred to in the paper by Attle et al (1980) and in the earlier bibliography produced by Jesses (1974).…”