INVESTIGATION OF FLUORESCENT BODY IN THE HUMAN CELLS

Abstract

Recently evidence, that Y chromosome with strong fluorescence can be distinctly distinguished from another chromosome on the metaphase plates of cultured human blood stained with quinacrine mustard dihydrochloride or quinacrine dihydrochloride (fluorescing dye-stuffs) and also a fluorescent spot in the similarly prepared interphase nuclei of various human cells can be observed through the fluorescence microscope, has been published and confirmed. The fluorescent spot in the interphase nucleus is thought to indicate the existence of Y chromosome and is called “fluorescent body”, and its clinical usefulness is suggested
The author investigated the fluorescent body in nuclei of somatic cells (mainly hair-root cells), lymphocytes of systemic blood and in spermatozoon with the fluorescence microscopic method.
1) Distinct fluorescence was recognized at the distal portion of Y chromosome long arms on the metaphase plate of cultured human lymphocytes stained with quinacrine.
2) In nuclei of hair-root cells as well as lymphocytes in the systemic blood obtained from normal male, a round or oval bright fluorescent body in diameter from 0.2μ to 0.3μ, was regularly observed and the average incidence of the fluorescent body was more than 40 percent of the cells examined. The incidence did not show the correlation to the age. In contrast to these findings, the fluorescent body usually could not be recognized in the nuclei of the somatic cells from women. If present at all, the incidence was in less than 3-4 percent.
It was reasonably concluded that the examination of the fluorescent body in the interphase nuclei of human somatic cells offered a very useful clinical method for determination of cytogenetic sex, and that combined examination of Barr body at the same time gave more accurate information for this purpose.
3) Spermatozoon with single fluorescent body which showed similar appearance in the interphase nuclei of somatic cells were observed in 40-45 percent. The incidence showed no correlation to sperm count or sperm motility of the sperms from the normospermics and oligospermics. In eight specimens, which were obtained from four normospermics and four oligospermics, spermatozoon with two fluorescent bodies were recognized. The average incidence was 1.8 percent. But double fluorescent body was observed more often in morphologically anomalous spermatozoon than in normal structured ones.
4) The incidence of fluorescent body in human somatic cells from patients with simple hypospadia, cryptorchidism, male infertilities and male hermaphorditism was on the same level as that of normal male, whereas female hermaphrodites showed the same level of incidence of fluorescent body as that of the normal female.
5) In true hermaphroditism, the incidences of fluorescent body and Barr body were almost in accordance with their karyotype, but showed lower level than that of normal men and women. In true hermaphrodites with mosaicism and mixed gonadal dysgenetic patients, the incidences of both bodies were generally low and sometimes the cytologic sex could not be determined from the examination of these nuclear bodies. The results would suggest that the patient might be true hermaphroditism or mixed gonadal dysgenesis.
6) The incidence of fluorescent body in patients with Kleinefelter's syndrome (all cases, 47, XXY, positive Barr body) was as high as that of normal men. It might be thought that the high incidence of fluorescent body corresponding with that of normal male with positive Barr body was a characteristic cytological feature in Kleinefelter's syndrome.