title: The distribution of nuclear mass, volume and dimensions.
abstract: Our own measurements and a review of measurements presented in the literature showed that the mass, volume and dimensions of cell nuclei are distributed with a skew towards higher values, a distribution that can best be described as lognormal. The practical consequences of this finding suggest that the measurements of mass and of size should be plotted on a logarithmic scale while DNA values are appropriately presented on a linear scale. The distribution of DNA values of normal cells represents errors introduced by random disturbances in preparations and measurements.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001940:Breast / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008433:Mathematics; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008857:Microscopy, Interference; D009698:Nucleoproteins / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D013552:Swine; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D009698:Nucleoproteins