Research in Cystic Fibrosis

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Abstract
(Second of Three Parts)Tissue-Culture StudiesMetachromasiaThe earliest observations of differences between cystic-fibrosis and normal cells were made by Danes and Bearn,54 who noted metachromasia, a staining property produced by interaction of a cationic dye with negatively charged macromolecules, in most lines of heterozygote and homozygote fibroblasts, but only rarely in normal fibroblasts. They distinguished two morphologic types and, in addition, a small group of families with cystic fibrosis whose cells are ametachromatic. All these various types "breed true."15 These findings provided the first objective suggestion that phenotypically similar patients might, in fact, be genetically heterogenous. However, these authors . . .