title: Digital image analysis of AgNORs in cervical smears of women with premalignant and malignant lesions of the uterine cervix.
abstract: We performed a hospital-based, unmatched case-control study to investigate the association between progressive stages of cervical neoplasia and digital analysis of cell proliferation by silver stained nucleolus organizer region associated proteins (AgNORs). We measured cell proliferation levels in the cervical epithelial cells of 10 women with low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LG-SIL), eight with high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HG-SIL), 11 with cervical cancer (CC) and eight with no cervical lesions (controls) using the AgNORs technique. Cell proliferation was measured by digital image analysis (DIA). DIA revealed increased total areas of AgNORs in HG-SIL and CC compared to LG-SIL and control patients. AgNORs with a kidney or cluster shape exhibited greater areas than those with a spherical or long shape. We propose a cut-off of 118 pixels to differentiate benign (control and LG-SIL) from malignant (HG-SIL and CC) lesions. DIA of AgNORs is a simple and inexpensive method for studying proliferation. The increased total area of AgNORs in malignant lesions provides information regarding cell behavior and may be related to cervical carcinogenesis; however, further validation studies are required to establish its usefulness in cytological analysis.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Genetics , Northeastern Biomedical Research Center, The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) , Monterrey , Mexico.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: García-Vielma
authors.affiliation: a Department of Genetics , Northeastern Biomedical Research Center, The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) , Monterrey , Mexico.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Dávila-Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: b Dysplasia Clinic, Medical Unit of High Specialty No. 23-IMSS , Monterrey , Mexico.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hernández-Garza
authors.affiliation: c Nursing Faculty, Autonomous University of Nuevo León , Monterrey , Mexico.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Cerda-Flores
authors.affiliation: a Department of Genetics , Northeastern Biomedical Research Center, The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) , Monterrey , Mexico.
authors.forename: E I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Cortés-Gutiérrez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D034961:Antigens, Nuclear / Q000378:metabolism*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000378:metabolism*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D014626:Vaginal Smears
chemical_list: D034961:Antigens, Nuclear; C051963:nucleolar organizer region associated proteins
keywords: AgNORs; cervical cancer; digital image analysis; nucleolus organizer regions; silver staining