Bevan L. Reid

A hypothesis: The role of a high-risk male in the etiology of cervical carcinoma: A correlation of epidemiology and molecular biology

Certain impressive epidemiological evidence appearing in the last few years leads to the conclusion that some males are more prone to have a spouse with squamous cancer of the cervix than others. Advances in knowledge in other fields, especially at the molecular biological level, enable speculation on reasons for this curious conclusion. These readily testable theories, together with an outline of the evidence on which they rest, form the substance of this hypothesis.

Cytoplasmic and Cell Surface Deoxyribonucleic Acids with Consideration of their Origin

Publisher Summary Advanced biochemical and biophysical techniques are used to differentiate cytoplasmic and cell surface deoxyribonucleic acids (DNA) from nuclear DNA and to counter the trivial argument that such DNA is a contaminant produced during the preparation. The evidence from biochemistry and morphology indicates that three separate compartments exist for accommodation of cellular DNA—nuclear, cytoplasmic including the plasma membrane, and extracellular or excreted DNA. If these three compartments are a part of a covalently linked polymer system, as seems not unlikely, then an interchange possibly of great velocity among the compartments is equally as likely. It is possible in such a close-knit system that a rearrangement of the carbohydrate chains of surface glycoprotein would be inevitably accompanied by a rearrangement of the sequence of a nucleotide polymer formed on the surface at the time. Biochemical methods are concerned with cell fractionation studies using centrifugation in various media. They reveal that a varying but small fraction of the DNA is found in postmitochondrial fractions, which in different studies may or may not vary from the nuclear DNA in several respects, including molecular weight, specific activity, sensitivity to antimetabolites, melting profile, and buoyant density.

A COLOPOSCOPIC STUDY OF THE CERVIX DURING PREGNANCY AND THE PUERPERIUM

To establish the natural history of the process of metaplasia of columnar to squamous epithelium the cervixes of 105 pregnant women (64 primiparae 41 multiparae) were examined colposcopically at least once each trimester and 5 days and 6 weeks postpartum. Previous studies had indicated that pregnancy is the period of most active formation of new epithelium in Metaplasia. The colposcopic study showed that the greatest production of new squamous epithelium occurs during the 1st pregnancy during the second or third trimester. Eversion of the columnar epithelium occurs in most primiparae at this time; the few women who do not show this eversion have a higher incidence of caesarian deliveries. The eversion may retract into the canal postpartum. Less eversion of the canal occurs in later pregnancies; when it does it is covered with metaplastic squamous epithelium. Eversion results from retraction of a sphincter-like part of the cervical musculature. Metaplasia is an essentially physiological process; atypical changes begin insidiously during the metaplasia of the 1st pregnancy. Very little trauma to the cervical mucosa was seen after delivery.

The Process of Cervical Regeneration After Electrocauterization:Part 1. Histological and Colposcopic Study

A combined colposcopic and histological study was made of the early phase of the healing of therapeutic electrocautery burns to the cervix.

The Process of Cervical Regeneration After ElectrocauterizationL:Part 2. Histochemical, Autoradiographic, and pH Study

Detailed studies were made of certain aspects of regenerating cells produced in response to destruction of cervical erosions by electrocautery. These aspects were local pH variarions by a polarographic technique, autoradiographic studies, studies of the formationof the epithelial basement membrane and phagocyte properties of the regenerating cells.

The Fate of the Nucleic Acid of Sperm Phaged* by Regenerating Cells

Based on composite considerations of epidemiology, histopathology and experimental biology, a thesis has been proposed for the origin of atypical growth patterns of the ectocervical epithelium and thereby of cervical carcinoma (Reid, 1965a). Reasons are advanced for viewing this disease as of venereal origin and for thereby searching for a carcinogen associated with coitus. The concept is developed, largely on a priori grounds, that the nucleic acid of the sperm head, if it gained entry to the genome of the cervical epithelial cell, could constitute such a carcinogen presumably after the manner of the oncogenic viruses. The entry of the sperm head to the ectocervical epithelium at a specific stage of its life history has been described (Reid, 1964a). It was found from in vitro and in vivo studies that the male gamete could enter the cytoplasm of presumptive squamous epithelium recently formed as a result of the process of metaplasia evidently by a process of phagocytosis by the latter cells. Such entry was precluded at a later stage in the life history of the epithelium when it was subsequently changed to mature squamous epithelium. The problem then became that of demonstrating the entry of nucleic acid of male origin into the nucleus of the host cell. Attempts at this demonstration form the subject of this paper. Two lines were followed, the one seeking an experimental laboratory mouse, the other using metaplastic squamous epithelium from the human cervix. Some of the observations have already appeared in abstract form (Reid, 1965b).

Two Types of Squamous Epithelium of the Human Ectocervix A Histological and Colposcopic Study

The human ectocervix is divided into two zones, a circumoral regenerate epithelium and a more peripheral native epithelium. Each zone possesses a specific histological and colposcopic structure involving epithelial and subepithelial layers. Colposcopic examination reveals a difference in colour and texture of the two areas, whilst histological examination reveals differences in the type and arrangements of cells and tissues in both epithelial and subepithelial layers. These differences are manifest at a sharp junction represented by the line visible in the colposcope.

Autoradiographische Untersuchungen an normalem und atypischem Plattenepithel der menschlichen Cervix und Vagina

ZusammenfassungUm die Natur von Plattenepithelveränderungen an der Cervix uteri über die Morphologie hinaus besser charakterisieren zu können, wurde die Autoradiographie herangezogen. Unter bestimmten Bedingungen kann der Einbau von radioaktiv markiertem Thymidin als ein Maß für die Wachstumsrate angesehen werden. Der Isotopen-Einbau erfolgte in Gewebekulturen aus Explantaten von normalem und regenerierendem Plattenepithel sowie in explantierten Biopsien von kolposkopisch suspekten Arealen. Bereits im normalen Plattenepithel war die Streuung der prozentual markierten Zellen sehr hoch. Gleiches galt von atypischem Plattenepithel, obwohl dort ein gewisser Anstieg der Proliferation zu verzeichnen war. Eine Abhängigkeit zwischen dem Schweregrad der histologisch erfaßbaren Veränderung und der autoradiographisch erkennbaren Proliferation konnte nicht gefunden werden.

Effects of very-long-range forces on filament formation in india ink particle preparations in water

The expected diffusion phase of a drop of india ink layered on water is interrupted by the appearance of straight 0.5-mm-diameter filaments of carbon particles when two experimental conditions are imposed. First, the water is derived from ice melted near a lead mass and, second, the ink suspension is inserted into space surrounding a cylindrical vessel of chipped ice containing calcium chloride. Equilibrium between the phases, respectively diffuse and filamentary can be disturbed by placing objects in this space to the left-hand side of the ice-containing vessel. When a thin film of oil-on-water is so placed the filament disappears within 15 s. Its disappearance is prevented by the solution of a prostaglandin in the same oil. Reasons are discussed for viewing the observations as indirectly derived from a coherent air flow surrounding the ice-calcium mixture, a coherence induced in turn in its contained gas molecules by a force described by Casimir. The observations can then be seen as macroscopic quantal in nature.

The ability of an electric current to carry information for crystal growth patterns

When a current from a 1.5- dry cell is passed successively through two vessels containing 0.15 M sodium chloride solution the crystal pattern of the salt dried from the second vessel in the series is of the usual cubic symmetry. When the first vessel contains salt solution to which albumen has been added the crystal pattern in the second vessel changes to a more ornate form of a type found when albumen is present in the solution. Reasons are discussed for viewing the current as a carrier of properties of the protein solution able to induce some of those properties in pure salt solution.