Register for Factors affecting light-scattering properties of cervical cells studied
Rice UniversityApril 2, 2003
2003 APR 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Rice University bioengineers have studied "how the light scattering properties of cervical cells are affected by changes in nuclear morphology, DNA content, and chromatin texture, which occur during neoplastic progression."
"A number of noninvasive fiber optic optical technologies are under development for real-time diagnosis of neoplasia," noted R. Drezek and colleagues.
In their work, they used "a Cyto-Savant computer-assisted image analysis system to acquire quantitative nuclear features measurements from 122 Feulgen-thion in-stained histopathologic sections of cervical tissue. A subset of the measured nuclear features was incorporated into a finite-difference time-domain (DTD) model of cellular light scattering. The magnitude and angular distribution of scattered light was calculated for cervical cells as a function of pathologic grade."
The researchers found that "the nuclear atypia strongly affected light scattering properties [in cervical cell sections]. The increased size and elevated DNA content of nuclei in high-grade lesions caused the most significant changes in scattering intensity. The spatial dimensions of chromatin texture features and the amplitude of refractive index fluctuations within the nucleus impacted both the angular distribution of scattering angles and the total amount of scattered light."
Drezek and colleagues wrote: "Cellular scattering is sensitive to changes in nuclear morphology that accompany neoplastic progression. Understanding the quantitative relationships between nuclear features and scattering properties will aid in the development of noninvasive optical technologies for detection of precancerous conditions."
Drezek and coauthors published their study in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (Light scattering from cervical cells throughout neoplastic progression: Influence of nuclear morphology, DNA content, and chromatin texture. J Biomed Opt, 2003;8(1):7-16).
For additional information, contact R. Drezek, Rice University, Department Bioengineering, Houston, TX 77251 USA.
To subscribe to the Journal of Biomedical Optics, contact the publisher: Spie-International Society Optical Engineering, 1000 20th St., PO Box 10, Bellingham, WA 98225 USA.
The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of DNA Research, Cancer Diagnostics, Imaging Technology. This article was prepared by Biotech Week editors from staff and other reports.
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