[Correlationship between cellular DNA and AgNOR protein content in the developing course of colorectal...

Cellular DNA and AgNOR protein content were evaluated by automatic image analysis in tissue sections stained by combined Feulgen-AgNOR method of 9 normal colonic mucosae, 45 colorectal adenomas and 27 colorectal correlation between AgNOR protein and DNA contents. In adenocarcinomas, the DNA and AgNOR protein contents were higher than those in adenomas, which were in turn higher than those in normal colonic mucosa. However, there was considerable overlapping in the DNA or AgNOR protein content between adenoma and adenocarcinoma groups and between adenoma and normal colonic mucosa groups. By assessing the correlationship between the DNA and AgNOR protein contents, the number of the overlapping cases was reduced significantly. Therefore it is much more reliable to distinguish colorectal adenomas from adenocarcinomas by using the correlationship between the cellular DNA and the AgNOR protein contents in the same specimens.