Cervicovaginal and endometrial cytology in ovarian cancer

The clinical significance of cytologic examination was studied in 114 patients with ovarian cancer who had received preoperative cytologic examinations. The overall positive rate of the cytologic examinations was 26.3% (30 of 114): 22 (19.3%) of the 114 cases had positive cervicovaginal smears while 13 of 31 endometrial aspiration smears (41.9%) were positive. The positive rate was not related to the volume of ascites but rather to its presence or absence. Thus, if ascites was observed, the positive rate was about 2.1 times higher than if it was absent. In two of four cases of ovarian cancer with no endometrial invasion but a positive cytologic examination of ascitic fluid, fallopian tube specimens contained cancer cells; this suggests that ovarian cancer cells may reach the cervix and/or vagina by passing through the fallopian tube, particularly if ascites is present. Since cytologic examination, especially of endometrial aspiration smears, shows a high positive rate if ovarian cancer cells are observed in the abdominal cavity, cytology should be used as an important ancillary method for the assessment of ovarian cancer.     

Postoperative changes in vaginal smears after vaginal reconstruction with a free skin graft

Surgical vaginal reconstruction was performed by a free skin graft in two patients without a vagina. The postoperative changes in vaginal smears collected from the artificial vaginas were observed for about two years. Marked operation-induced inflammatory changes were observed until the second postoperative month. After the third postoperative month, the background became relatively clear. Cyanophilic and eosinophilic superficial cells, intermediate cells and D?derlein bacilli were observed occasionally in addition to keratotic cells. Six to 12 months after surgery, the vaginal smears showed little abnormality, except for the presence of keratotic cells. The changes in the vaginal smears after the third month show that the artificial vaginal epithelium changed cytologically to an almost normal vaginal mucosa that, although not histologically complete, responded to hormones. The presence of D?derlein bacilli suggests that the regional environment of the artificial vagina was almost the same as that of the normal vagina.     

Chromosomal localization of Sau3A repetitive DNA revealed by in situ hybridization

The Sau3A DNA family consists of unique alphoid human repetitive DNA which is prone to be excised from the chromosomes and exhibits restriction fragment length polymorphism. We studied the chromosomal localization of the DNA by in situ hybridization using cultured normal human lymphocytes. Under standard hybridization conditions, the sequence hybridized with the centromeric regions of chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19 and X, but under high stringency hybridization conditions, it hybridized with the centromeric regions of chromosomes 1, 17 and X, and particularly chromosome 11. Based on these results, we discuss the evolutionary relationship among the sequences of the Sau3A DNA family.     

Affinity of chromatin constituents for isopeptidase

Isopeptidase is a novel eukaryotic enzyme that cleaves a structural chromatin protein, A24, stoichiometrically into H2A and ubiquitin. To understand the rapid turnover of ubiquitin in mitosis as wells as the high specific activity of the enzyme associated with metaphase chromosomes, attempts were made to determine chromatin constituents that show high affinity for this enzyme. Endogenous protease-free isopeptidase was prepared from calf thymus and applied to a Sepharose 4B affinity column on which histones, DNA, NHCP and ubiquitin were respectively immobilized. The enzyme proved to bind only histones. To further determine which of the histone fractions is involved, affinity columns with each histone fraction were also used. The enzyme showed affinity for all histone fractions. However, the strength of affinity varied in the order H2A>H³ H2B≥H4?H1, being inversely correlated with the ratio of basic/acidic amino acids in these molecules. These results suggest that the turnover of A24 in mitosis is controlled, at least in part, by the affinity of enzyme for histones, and also that such affinity is caused by a mechanism which cannot be explained simply by the electrostatic interaction between negatively charged enzyme molecules and positively charged histones.     

Alignment of the Genome of Monkey B-Lymphotropic Papovavirus to the Genomes of Simian Virus 40 and BK Virus

We located the origin of DNA replication of African green monkey B-lymphotropic papovavirus DNA by analyzing pulse-labeled form I DNA. With the replication origin used as a reference point, the B-lymphotropic papovavirus genome was aligned with the genomes of simian virus 40 and BK virus from DNA homology between specific fragments hybridized under low-stringency conditions. From the results of these experiments, it was possible to deduce the correlation between the physical and functional maps of the B-lymphotropic papovavirus genome.     

Molecular cloning and nucleotide sequence of the gramicidin S synthetase 1 gene

The entire gene for gramicidin S synthetase 1 (GS 1) was cloned into the plasmid vector pUC18, and the nucleotide sequences of the GS 1 gene and its flanking region were determined. The full-length clone was 4,539 base pairs long and had an open reading frame of 3,294 nucleotides coding for 1,098 amino acids. The calculated molecular weight of 123,474 agreed with the apparent molecular weight of 120,000 found in SDS-PAGE of GS 1 from B. brevis. The nucleotide sequence of GS 1 gene was highly homologous to that of tyrocidine synthetase 1. The overall similarity between the deduced amino acid sequences of the two genes was 57.5%. The gene product of clone GS309 was easily purified to an essentially homogeneous state by ammonium sulfate fractionation followed by DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B, Ultrogel AcA-34, and second DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B column chromatography. The purified protein catalyzed the D-phenylalanine-dependent ATP-32PPi exchange reaction which is specific for GS 1 activity, and the specific activity of the purified product was nearly the same as the purified GS 1 from B. brevis. The product also showed a weak phenylalanine racemase activity.