Comparison of two measuring methods for the evaluation of C-heterochromatin in human chromosomes

In this study two different methods for evaluating the size of the C heterochromatin blocks of human chromosomes 1, 9, 16, and Y were compared. The first method measured the lengths of both the euchromatin and the C heterochromatin parts of the p and q arms of chromosomes 1, 9, 16, and Y. The second method analyzed the same chromosome segments, but by measuring the areas. In the comparison, the relative C heterochromatin value (length or surface) of each chromosome, the mean for each individual, the standard deviation, and the coefficient of variation were taken into account. It is proposed that the best estimation for the size of a C heterochromatin segment is the ratio of its length to the total length of the chromosome; accurate estimation requires at least 20 metaphases.