Cytological studies of carcinogen-treated bovine pancreatic ductal organ explants

Discrimination of normal and transformed cells in vitro by cytologic and morphologic analysis

Malignant A-549 lung carcinoma and adenovirus-12 SV40 hybrid virus transformed non-tumorigenic human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) were objectively discriminated from normal bronchial epithelial (BE) cells on the basis of Papanicolaou stained nuclear features (e.g. shape, chromatin texture, hyperchromasia) and nucleolar morphology (e.g. number per cell, irregular contours). Morphometric analysis indicated that significant differences in cellular morphology existed between BE, BEAS-2B, and A-549 cells. Similar analyses of transformed, tumorigenic cell lines demonstrated that nuclear features (i.e., chromatin texture, clearing of parachromatin, hyperchromasia, variation in thickness of the nuclear envelope, sharp indentations in the nuclear envelope), and nucleolar features (i.e., degree of roundness, presence of angular projections, number per cell) discriminated chemically and virally transformed cells from spontaneously transformed cells. Nuclear and nucleolar features were correlated with the growth rate of tumorigenic cell lines. These analytical approaches will be helpful in studies of the effects of various factors (e.g. vitamin A, phorbol ester, oncogene transfection) on cellular proliferation and/or differentiation.

Exfoliative cytologic evaluation of primary cultured lung carcinomas

This paper describes a tissue culture and exfoliative cell culture system that enables one to (1) evaluate the adequacy of primary lung carcinoma cultures for cytogenetic analysis, and (2) predict the likelihood of viable cells and type of differentiation present in the primary lung tumor cultures used for cytogenetics. Primary lung carcinomas were established from explant outgrowths and maintained in serum supplemented or serum free media on plastic or basement membrane associated protein coated dishes in order to obtain cells for karyotypic analysis (Miura et al., 1990). The media from these cultures that would ordinarily have been discarded was aspirated at each media change and used to prepare cytocentrifuge cytology preparations. Papanicolaou stained cells from the preparations were evaluated by cytotechnologists in order to assess (1) the cellularity and presence of cancer cells in the sample, (2) cytology preparations of cell and explant outgrowth cultures from primary lung tumors are reliable method for screening and evaluating the suitability of primary lung carcinoma cultures for cytogenetic analysis.

Explant organ culture: a review

Organ explant culture models offer several significant advantages for studies of patho-physiologic mechanisms like cell injury, secretion, differentiation and structure development. Organs or small explants/slices can be removed in vivo and maintained in vitro for extended periods of time if careful attention is paid to the media composition, substrate selection, and atmosphere. In the case of human tissues obtained from autopsy or surgery, additional attention must be paid to the postmortem interval, temperature, hydration, and cause of death. Explant organ culture has been effectively utilized to establish outgrowth cell cultures and characterize the histiotypic relationships between the various cell types within an organ or tissue.

Contact smear cytologic preparations of organ culture explant tissue

The effects of cytologic sampling by contact-smear on the viability and morphology of epithelial tissues maintained as explants in organ culture were studied. Tracheal and pancreatic tissues from Syrian golden hamsters were maintained for 30 days in culture, and sampled cytologically at weekly intervals. Analysis of sequential Papanicolaou-stained smears demonstrates that explant tissues can be evaluated cytologically over time in vitro without apparent effects on either the tissue viability, histochemistry or morphology. Microscopic examination further reveals that cellular samples retain diagnostically significant cytomorphologic features of the in vivo tissues. These observations indicate that this technique is useful for understanding the long-term response to carcinogens of epithelial tissue maintained in explant organ culture.