Denaturation of deoxyribonucleic acid in the cell

Summavy Isolated DNA loses in the smear its original ability to stain by methylene blue metachromatically, if it was denatured. Hepatocyte chromatin in a smear is stained by the same stain metachromatically but after the effect of heat or an acidic or alkaline reaction orthochromatically. It is thus possible to distinguish the native from the denatured DNA in a smear preparation. We assume that changes observed in the nuclei of hepatocytes after the action of denaturing agents may be regarded as changes due to the denaturation of DNA.