Computerized morphonuclear analyses of Feulgen-stained nuclei from 11 chemosensitive and from 11 chemoresistant neoplastic cell lines.

It has previously been demonstrated that the cell nuclei from 1 mouse mammary cancer and 2 neoplastic human bladder cell lines displayed common morphonuclear characteristics when they were made resistant to different anti-neoplastic agents. In the present work this experiment was repeated with a greater number of cell lines from different kinds of tumours. The nuclei from the sensitive and resistant cells were submitted to Feulgen staining and studied by means of computerized nuclear image analysis. This methodology made it possible to characterize the cell nuclei by means of 15 parameters including 1 geometric, 2 densitometric and 12 others quantitatively describing the chromatin pattern. The results showed that the morphonuclear feature of the cell lines significantly varied according to the extent of the resistance. The majority of the observations showed that the direction of the variations seemed to be a function of the origin of the tissue. On the basis of the experimental results reported here, we think that it would be possible to establish a model for the purpose of monitoring the effectiveness of anticancer treatment from a clinical point of view.