[DNA cytofluorometric analysis of nerve sheath tumors]

The present study was undertaken to clarify the ploidy patterns of peripheral nerve sheath tumors by determining nuclear DNA content of the individual tumor cells using PI-DNA cytofluorometry (NIKON SPM-RF1-D), and to investigate the relation between the ploidy patterns and histopathological findings. Most of the solitary neurilemmomas and neurofibromas studied were found to be associated with euploid-polyploidization, almost without DNA synthetic cells. It was also shown that the number of polyploid cells increased in accordance with an increase in the frequency of cells having large, atypical nuclei in histological picture, regardless of the natures of cellular arrangements. Malignant schwannomas, however, were composed of many polyploid and aneuploid cells with an increase of DNA synthetic cells, indicating their active cell proliferation. Thus, the ploidy patterns of nerve sheath tumors were remarkably different between benign and malignant ones. Furthermore, a case of multiple schwannoma suspected to be a variant of von Recklinghausen's disease, showed euploid-polyploidization with many DNA synthetic cells, indicating a ploidy pattern intermediate between benign and malignant tumors. This tumor thus appears to be a premalignant tumor or in the early stages of malignancy.