An estimate is made of the frequency of occurrence of nexuses ("gap junctions") in a spectrum of human cervical epithelia, ranging from normal to malignant, since a deficiency of nexuses may be important in abnormal cell-to-cell communication in malignant tissues. The normal cervical epithelium has approximately ten nexuses per cell in the basal layer of proliferating cells and 200 nexuses per cell in the more differentiated intermediate zone. Nexuses are rare between invasive malignant epithelial cells (carcinoma cells). In many areas of cell proliferation near the edge of the tumor mass, fewer than one nexus per cell is present. However, up to four nexuses per cell can be found in some well differentiated regions of invasive carcinoma. Preinvasive malignant epithelia (severe dysplasia and carcinoma-in situ) have as few nexuses as invasive carcinoma. In abnormal but benign epithelia (squamous metaplasia and mild dysplasia), nexuses are abundant. The data indicate that a decrease in number of nexuses correlates with the severity of the morphological alteration in the dysplastic epithelium. Also the deficiency of nexuses in groups of carcinoma cells can occur many cell generations before the development of invasion of the malignant epithelium into the connective tissue. The diminution of nexuses before invasion suggests that a deficiency of nexuses may be one of the important factors in eventually permitting the development of the diffusely infiltrating type of invasion which is characteristic of highly malignant tumors such as squamous carcinomas.
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1 December 1971
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December 01 1971
FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE OCCURRENCE OF NEXUSES IN BENIGN AND MALIGNANT HUMAN CERVICAL EPITHELIUM
N. Scott McNutt,
N. Scott McNutt
From the James Homer Wright Pathology Laboratories, Department of Pathology, and the Mixter Laboratory for Electron Microscopy, Massachusetts General Hospital 02114, and the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston Massachusetts 02114
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Robert A. Hershberg,
Robert A. Hershberg
From the James Homer Wright Pathology Laboratories, Department of Pathology, and the Mixter Laboratory for Electron Microscopy, Massachusetts General Hospital 02114, and the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston Massachusetts 02114
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Ronald S. Weinstein
Ronald S. Weinstein
From the James Homer Wright Pathology Laboratories, Department of Pathology, and the Mixter Laboratory for Electron Microscopy, Massachusetts General Hospital 02114, and the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston Massachusetts 02114
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N. Scott McNutt
From the James Homer Wright Pathology Laboratories, Department of Pathology, and the Mixter Laboratory for Electron Microscopy, Massachusetts General Hospital 02114, and the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston Massachusetts 02114
Robert A. Hershberg
From the James Homer Wright Pathology Laboratories, Department of Pathology, and the Mixter Laboratory for Electron Microscopy, Massachusetts General Hospital 02114, and the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston Massachusetts 02114
Ronald S. Weinstein
From the James Homer Wright Pathology Laboratories, Department of Pathology, and the Mixter Laboratory for Electron Microscopy, Massachusetts General Hospital 02114, and the Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston Massachusetts 02114
Received:
April 07 1971
Revision Received:
July 27 1971
Online ISSN: 1540-8140
Print ISSN: 0021-9525
Copyright © 1971 by The Rockefeller University Press
1971
J Cell Biol (1971) 51 (3): 805–825.
Article history
Received:
April 07 1971
Revision Received:
July 27 1971
Citation
N. Scott McNutt, Robert A. Hershberg, Ronald S. Weinstein; FURTHER OBSERVATIONS ON THE OCCURRENCE OF NEXUSES IN BENIGN AND MALIGNANT HUMAN CERVICAL EPITHELIUM . J Cell Biol 1 December 1971; 51 (3): 805–825. doi: https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.51.3.805
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