[Surface ultrastructure of the human uterine exfoliated endometrial cells--comparative studies of the same cell by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (author's transl)].

The preparations for observations of the same cells by light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were examined and the exfoliated endometrial cells of the uterus obtained by the newly introduced brush and cannula was evaluated. 1) The degree of shrinkage of the area was not significant between the air drying method and critical point drying method. In the air drying group, adhesion, entanglement and disappearance of microvilli (mv) and the adhesion of cilia, and the collapse of cells were noted morphologically. 2) Papanicolaou stain had no effect on the degree of shrinkage of the area and the shape of cilia or mv. 3) When the samples were transferred from ethanol to critical point drying, without immersion in isoamyl acetate, artifacts appeared in small granulated form. 4) The menopausal phase was divided into two groups which showed a shift of the maturation Index (MI) to center and had a slender mv and the other group which showed a shift to the left and granular mv. The nether surface of the cells showed a wrinkled and irregular undulations and did not show cilia or mv. 5) In adenomatous hyperplasia, the ratio of ciliated cell to no ciliated cell was four to one. It was two to one in cystic glandular hyperplasia. 6) The dense and short mv were observed in well-differentiated adenocarcinoma and poorly-differentiated adenocarcinoma showed neither mv nor cilia. Morphologic changes of mv and cilia in carcinomatous change of uterine endometrium commenced with a decrease in cilia, shifted to the shortening and disappearance disappearance of mv.