Ploidy and Proliferative Activity of Human Brain Tumors

Abstract

Ploidy and proliferative characteristics were estimated by flow cytometry of the nuclear DNA content of 92 human brain tumors. Samples were frozen at ––20°C immediately after surgery and single cell suspensions were obtained with a mechanical dissociation technique. Propidium iodide was employed for nuclear DNA staining. Human normal brain tissue was used as internal diploid reference standard. 86% of benign tumors had unimodal DNA distribution with a DNA index (DNA I = modal channel of the G_0/1 peak of the studied population/modal channel of the G_0/1 peak of the normal brain) usually within the diploid or near-diploid range. 14.0% had aneuploidy, with an additional cell peak having a median DNA I of 1.60. Among malignant tumors, these figures were 61.2 and 38.8% (p <0.001). The percentage of S phase cells was higher in malignant (median = 3.6) than in benign tumors (median = 2.0, p <0.01), without correlation to histological tumor subtype. Flow cytometry appears to be a useful method for evaluating differences in DNA distribution in tumors of the central nervous system.

Image Cytometric Measurement of Nuclear Proliferation Markers (MIB-1, PCNA) in Astrocytomas:Prognostic Significance

“…Research into proliferation markers for astrocytomas has included several approaches, including flow cytometry, 4 ' 5 nucleolar organizer regions, [6][7][8] bromodeoxyuridine labeling index, 7 ' 9 and immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibodies to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), 8 ' 10 " 12 Ki-67, 7 ' 9 -11 -13 - 15 and more recently, MIB-1.…”

Cell kinetics in leukaemia and solid tumours studied with in vivo bromodeoxyuridine and flow cytometry

“…The in vivo administration of bromodeoxyuridine (BUDR, a non-radioactive pyrimidine analogue which is incorporated into S-phase cells) coupled with bivariate FCM for measurements (Wilson et al, 1985) allows a complete kinetic picture of human cancer to be obtained easily, using a single tumour sample taken 6h after BUDR infusion and double stained with a green fluorescent anti-BUDR monoclonal antibody and a red fluorescent DNA dye (Begg et al, 1985;Danova et al, 1987a;Riccardi et al, 1988 Table I). Two to 4 mm diameter tumour samples were obtained during surgery in patients with gastric and brain tumours.…”

DNA analysis of breast tumour fine needle aspirates using flow cytometry

“…These results would fall midway within the, albeit large, range of values reported by others (Kute et al, 1981;Olszewski et al, 1981) (Dixon et al, 1984), it is more widely employed for routine diagnosis. In certain cases, flow cytometric DNA analysis of FNA material may provide additional diagnostic information in that although DNA aneuploid cells have been detected in benign lesions of the breast (Cornelisse et al, 1983;Uccelli et al, 1986) and other tissues (Danova et al, 1987;Jarvis et al, 1987;Joensuu et al, 1986), the incidence is relatively low. The presence of a distinct population of DNA aneuploid cells may therefore be indicitive of malignancy.…”