Nucleic acids in human tumors.

Nucleic acids and nucleoproteins are important constituents of the cell, with vital roles to play in the transfer of genic characteristics, in cellular division, in the synthesis of proteins, and probably in the formation or action of enzymes (6, 11, 14, 26). The increasing evidence that disturbances in the nucleoproteins and nucleic acids may be an important factor in the intracellular cause of tumors has been recently reviewed (26). Photometric histochemical observations have shown that there are increased 11336 amounts of thymonucleic acid in some epidermoid 11120 carcinomas of the skin of men (29), and in the epidermis of mice painted with methylcholanthrene (22) 6989 as well as in the white blood cells of patients with 7362 lymphoid leukemia (25). 7306 If quantitative differences in nucleic acids represent an intracellular cause of neoplasia, it should be 6894 possible to demonstrate these changes in a signifi1582 cant percentage of many different types of new growth. The following photometric histochemical 56,31 study of 20 human tumors was undertaken to deter10827 mine the variations in nucleic acids of the desoxyribose and ribose types in a variety of neoplasms and cor43-939 45-328 responding normal tissues. For the proper interpre11508 tation of quantitative chemical measurements it is 11364 desirable to relate the results to the living biologic 11338 11077 unit, the cell, and to variations in its morphologic 11384 constituents. Therefore the results of these measure45-48 45-142 ments are related as far as possible to the volume of 11223 the tissue and to the mean volume of the cell, nucleus, 11375 cytoplasm, chromatin, nucleolus, and nuclear sap.