title: Proliferative characteristics and ploidy of human brain tumors by DNA flow cytometry.
abstract: We studied nuclear DNA distribution by flow cytometry in 59 human brain tumors. Samples were frozen at -20 degrees C immediately after surgery and unicellular suspensions were obtained with a mechanical dissociation technique. Nuclear DNA was stained with propidium iodide. Normal human brain tissue was used as a diploid reference standard. In 86.3% of benign tumors an unimodal DNA distribution with a DNA index usually within the diploid range was found. Among malignant tumors, 64% had un unimodal DNA distribution with diploid or near-diploid modal DNA content. The remaining 36% showed an additional cell peak with a DNA index ranging from 1.15 to 1.92. The percentage of S-phase cells was higher in malignant (median = 3.8) than in benign tumors (median = 1.9) (p less than .001), without correlation to histological tumor subtype.
mesh_terms: D000782:Aneuploidy; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D002455:Cell Division; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D004171:Diploidy; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D007399:Interphase; D011003:Ploidies
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm