Teresa Lettini

Nuclear Morphometry in Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) of the Tongue

In the histological grading of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) nuclear features are very important. Nevertheless evaluation is usually performed in a subjective and not highly reproducible way. The aim of this work was to investigate the relationship between nuclear shape and survival in 30 cases of carcinoma of the tongue. All the patients were divided into two groups: short-term survival and long-term survival. Twenty nuclei for each tumour were submitted to a morphometrical study by the shape analytical morphometry (SAM) software system. It was thus possible to evaluate not only nuclear dimensions but also nuclear contour irregularities and nuclear shape asymmetries. Multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA) of the quantitative parameters obtained by the morphometrical study distinguished the patients of the two groups with only a 10% error; moreover successful cluster analysis was performed by using Fourier parameters. Both these sets of results were achieved mainly owing to the parameters for contour irregularities.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis aided by the S.A.M. system.

In the attempt to discriminate between centroblasts and immunoblasts, an analytical morphometrical procedure was adopted, considering the nuclei of a randomly selected centroblastic and immunoblastic population from non-Hodgkins lymphomas and the nucleoli of a more restricted number of the same neoplastic population. All the size-independent shape-descriptor parameters extracted for each step of the mathematical analyses used were submitted to Hotellings multivariate discriminant analysis that enabled us to achieve a good distinction (3% error) between centroblasts and immunoblasts when nuclear and nucleolar parameters were used together.

Morphometrical investigation of medulloblastoma nuclei by S.A.M. (Shape Analytical Morphometry) software system

In order to characterize medulloblastomas and to get over the difficulties sometimes encountered in differential diagnosis, a double morphometric procedure has been applied to its nuclei. The first consisted of size measurements (maximum diameter, area and perimeter), the latter is represented by S.A.M. (Shape Analytical Morphometry) software-system specifically implemented to describe shape of biological structure by analytical parameters. Analytical and dimensional parameters submitted to Hotellings multivariate discriminant analysis gave the best results when used together in convenient discriminant subsets, thereby allowing a good distinction between medulloblastoma in comparison with neuroblastoma, Ewings tumor, lymphoblastic and lymphocytic lymphoma. These results underline the usefulness of morphometric characterization also for practical diagnostic purposes.

Somatostatin expression in TS16 mouse brain cultures

Somatostatin expression in trisomy 16 mouse neuronal cultures has been studied to investigate the effects of the presence of an extra copy of the pre-pro-somatostatin (ppSS) gene on mouse chromosome 16. The immunoreactivity for somatostatin (SS) was considered in mixed cultures of neurons and glia cells and in neuron-enriched cultures as well as that for neuropeptide Y, glutamic acid decarboxylase, and γ-enolase immunoreactivity the genes of which are not present on mouse chromosome 16. ppSS and pre-pro-neuropeptide Y (ppNPY) mRNA expression was evaluated and SS immunoreactivity in neurons analyzed by a morphometrical study. The extra copy of the ppSS gene resulted in a significantly increased level of the transcript in trisomic cultures, whereas the expression of the other neuropeptides did not differ. The absence of glial cells in these cultures reduced the number of SS-positive neurons making their number comparable in the trisomic and control cultures. Thus, in spite of higher expression of the ppSS mRNA in trisomic cultures, the determination of this peptidergic phenotype was influenced by the presence of neuroglial cells.

Hand-Mirror (HM) Cells in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (A.L.L.): An Attempt at Cellular Classification by Morphometric Analytical Parameters Using the S.A.M. (Shape Analytical Morphometry) System

A morphometric study of the nuclear and cytoplasmic shape of a blastic population in a case of HM-A.L.L. was performed by comparing the two differently shaped populations with and without HM configuration. The results obtained using analytical size-independent parameters created by the S.A.M. work-station enable us to characterize the shape of both blastic cell populations quantitatively, and strongly suggest the existence of shape modulation from one cellular type toward the other. Thus a possible sequence from blastic cells (having regular, rather round nuclei) to HM cells (characterized by high distortion of both nucleus and cytoplasm) was proposed.

Morphological Diagnosis Turns from Gestalt to Geometry

In 1917, W. D’Arcy Thompson had posed the question of size-shape relationship in terms of “Growth and Form” by linking the size-shape problem to the following two fundamental concepts: on the one hand, that is possible to base morphological classifications on a non dimensional type of mathematics (analytical functions), on the other hand, it can be postulated that this approach would allow the verification of the “principle of discontinuity”, with particular relevance if this principle occurs in morphogenesis. It is by a Sistema Naturae rethinking D’Arcy Thompson (the “great” D’Arcy Thompson, in our opinion), and not by more popular D’Arcy Thompson’s proposal of coordinate trasformation method which is, actually, unrealable and uneffective because it uses discrete landmarks that require to assign an arbitrary meaning of biological homology to the given landmarks, so loosing information on intervals among landmarks.

Primary melanoma of the testis: myth

We read with interest the results of the retrospective study by Hadjinicolaou et al . (1) which described a case of primary small bowel malignant melanoma (SBM) in a 60-year-old man with review of the literature. The authors conclude that primary SBM is a rare entity, affect more frequently the men, with debatable pathophysiology.