Chromosome number of human cervix uteri

Abstract

In a recent review, Beatty has shown much evidence in favour of the inconstancy of chromosome number in various somatic tissues of mammals, including man. Sachs, however, did not observe any variation in the chromosome number of human and some other mammalian endometrial tissues from a count of fifty nuclei in each case by using the squash technique. Walker and Boothroyd, using a similar method, obtained wide variations in the chromosome number in somatic tissues of mouse and to a less extent in human endometrium; but when they employed the membrane and spinning technique for the same tissues, the variations were within a narrow limit. Human endometrial tissues have also been examined by me and by Timonen. Except Sachs, we have found variation of the chromosome number in human endometrium, although my results agree more with those of Walker and Boothroyd in showing a narrower range of variation than those of Timonen. Since the chromosome number of human endometrium is a matter of controversy, I have been studying the chromosome in the epithelium of non-neoplastic cervix uteri with an improved technique6. Preliminary results for chromosome counts from one hundred nuclei have been obtained.