Journal of Clinical Pathology Short report

Vacuolation in hepatocyte nuclei is a marker of senescence

Aravinthan, A., Verma, S., Coleman, N., Davies, S., Allison, M., Alexander, G. — 2012-05-19T05:47:01-07:00

Hepatocyte nuclear vacuolation is considered benign and associated with non-alcohol-related fatty liver disease. Vacuolated hepatocyte nuclei were compared with non-vacuolated hepatocyte nuclei in eight patients with advanced fibrosis and a spectrum of liver disease to explore the hypothesis that such nuclei represent senescence. Age- and sex-matched liver donors served as normal tissue. In normal liver <0.01% hepatocytes showed nuclear vacuolation. In contrast, nuclear vacuolation was present in all patients with liver disease, ranging from 0.1% to 11.7% hepatocytes, irrespective of the aetiology of liver disease and independent of insulin resistance. There was a close association between nuclear vacuolation and increased nuclear area, p21 expression, H₂AX expression and the absence of Mcm-2, consistent with senescence and cell cycle arrest. Nuclear vacuolation in hepatocytes is a marker of senescence and likely to be a consequence of liver injury, unrelated to insulin resistance.

EGFR mutations detection on liquid-based cytology: is microscopy still necessary?

2012-05-19T05:47:01-07:00

Currently, there is a trend towards an increasing use of liquid-based cytology (LBC) to diagnose non–small cell lung cancer. In this study, to detect epidermal growth factor receptor mutations, different molecular techniques were applied to LBC samples with and without laser capture microdissection (LCM). In 58 LBCs, DNA was extracted twice. One sample was obtained directly from CytoLyt solution, whereas the other DNA sample was derived after slide preparation and LCM of Papanicolaou-stained cells. The rate of mutant cases obtained by direct sequencing was discordant between CytoLyt-derived (10.3%) and LCM-derived (17.2%) DNA. However, the same mutant rate (17.2%) was achieved on the matched samples by high-resolution melting analysis, fragment and TaqMan assays. Thus, LCM and direct sequencing may be replaced by more sensitive non-sequencing methods directly performed on CytoLyt-derived DNA, an easier and faster approach to improve epidermal growth factor receptor testing standardisation on LBCs.