Quantitative analysis of butyric acid-induced nuclear ultrastructural alterations in cells of human lung giant cell carcinoma in vitro

The effects of butyric acid(BA)on the nuclear ultrastructure of humanlung giant cell carcinoma(Strain PLA-801 D)were observed with digital imageprocessing.It was found that the length of the nuclear circumference of the tu-mor cells incubated with 2mmol of BA was approximately equal to that of thecontrol whereas the nuclear area was increased by 1.4times,which implies thatthe nuclear profile tends to become more regular after BA treatment.In addition,the optical density of the nuclei of the experimental group decreased significantlyas compared with that of the control,which indicates that the chromatin in thenuclei was decreased by BA.It was concluded on the basis of the findings thatBA may have a biological effect of reverse-transformation on the malignant cells.