Deoxyribonucleic Acid Values (Feulgen Microspectrophotometry) in Epithelium of Human Ectocervix, Normal and Cancerous

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Abstract
Absorption measurements of Feulgen-stained nuclei have been made on squamous epithelia in the human cervix uteri in precancerous and cancerous conditions. The scatter of values for the prepuberal and for 3 out of 8 post-puberal cervical epithelial histograms was fairly symmetrical and shaped like a wide variety of somatic tissues, including skin. In the remaining 5 post-puberal specimens there was a small group of nuclei at least double that of the mean for the tissue. In all the post-puberal specimens the mitotic rate was of the order of 1:10,000 cells. The scatter of values in the precancerous and cancerous specimens is characteristically broad, but broader in the so-called metaplastic lesion than in frank carcinoma. In the epithelia of otherwise normal cervices there were a few cells with high deoxyribonucleic acid values in the range of known values for cancer stem lines; the significance of their presence is discussed.