Presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society, Atlanta, Georgia, February 26-28, 1979, and Published in: Biophys. J. vol. 25, no. 2, part 2, p. 228a, Feb. 1979. 

"Asymmetry of Intra-Nuclear Function during Immune Lymphocyte Activation".

John H. Frenster, Michael M. Papalian, Marilyn A. Masek, and Jeffrey A. Frenster

Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, and the Institute for Medical Research, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, California 95128.

Abstract:

The DNA helix must open in localized areas before the interior base-coded genetic information can be used for new RNA or DNA synthesis (Cancer Res. 36: 3394 (1976). Such DNA helix openings can be visualized, measured, and counted by a high-resolution electron microscopic technique (J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 59: 839 (1977) which was used to determine the location, size, and number of in-vivo DNA helix openings (Nature 248: 334 (1974) within 502 individual cells in the neoplastically-involved lymph nodes of untreated patients with Hodgkin's Disease (Natl. Cancer Inst. Monogr. 36: 239 (1973). The 437 normal lymphocytes were found to be of three cytoplasmic types, monosomal, transitional, and polysomal, reflecting progressive activation of the lymphocyte cytoplasm. Lymphocytes apposed to neoplastic Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells were found to contain increased numbers of DNA helix openings, compared to non-apposed lymphocytes, with significant asymmetry of distribution of DNA helix openings into that half of the lymphocyte nucleus closest to the apposing neoplastic cell. Within the subset of apposed lymphocytes, the degree of asymmetry of intra-nuclear function increased progressively from monosomal lymphocytes through transitional lymphocytes to polysomal lymphocytes. This activation of immune lymphocytes in Hodgkin's Disease (Lancet 2: 167 (1974) may be mediated by the transfer of de-repressor immune RNA from the neoplastic cell to the proximal half of the nucleus of the immune T-lymphocyte (J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 60: 335 (1978).

Supported in part by Research Grants CA-10174 and CA-13524 from the National Cancer Institute, by Research Grant IC-45 from the American Cancer Society, and by a Research Scholar Award from the Leukemia Society.

Additional References:

0. Electron Microscopy of Human Lymphocytes before and after Activation by PHA (Busch H, 1974).

1. Frenster JH, Papalian MM, Masek MA, and Frenster JA, "Electron Microscopic Analysis of Lymph Node Cellular Activity in Hodgkin's Disease", J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 63: 331-335 (August, 1979).

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euchromatin: "the most active portion of the genome within the cell nucleus".