Nucleolar topography of nuclei in histologic sections. Application of a nonparametric approach to the study of breast cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
The position of the nucleolus within a near-convex nuclear profile was defined, without taking stereology into account, in terms of two distances, P and G, where P = pi p2/SN, G = pi 2/SN, p and g being, respectively, the smallest and greatest distances between the center of the nucleolus (considered as a disk) and the superficial nuclear membrane, and SN being the surface area of the nucleus. Nuclear elongation (ND) was defined by the ratio ND = SN/A, where A is the area of the largest inscribed disk. The nucleolus-nucleus ratio RS = Sn/SN (i.e., the surface of the nucleolus over that of the nucleus) describes the size of the nucleolus. A four-class classification of nucleolar topography was then developed from the model of an ellipsoid nuclear profile (1 less than ND less than 2.5), for which the probability that a randomly located nucleolus (with RS less than 0.23) will be classified as central (G less than 2.5 and 0.40 less than or equal to P less than 1) is less than 0.14, as paracentral (G less than 2.5 and 0.23 less than or equal to P less than 0.40) is less than 0.13, as "transversely eccentric" (G less than 2.5 and P less than 0.23) is less than 0.10 and as "longitudinally eccentric" (G greater than or equal to 2.5) is greater than 0.66. This theoretical distribution into four classes was compared to that of nuclear profiles in four cases of breast cancer and in typical cases of immunoblastic, centroblastic and Burkitt's non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. The findings illustrate the ability of this nonparametric method to indicate characteristic nucleolar locations in relation to the number of nucleoli, their size and their nuclear profile elongation.
Department of Hematology, La Pitie University, Salpetriere Hospital Center, Paris, France.
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Lesty
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Raphael
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Chleq
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Binet
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002450:Cell Communication; D002466:Cell Nucleolus / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008433:Mathematics