Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L Taşcă.
A histochemical azo-coupling method for localizing folic acid in situ is described. Cat and rat liver, kidney, bone marrow and brain were found to be rich in folic acid; stomach, intestine, salivary glands, and blood contained less. Folic acid was localized in the cytoplasm of tissues having a very active metabolism, but in the nucleus of highly specialized cells such as neurons.
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Dihydrofolate dehydrogenase activity was histochemically investigated comparatively to the activities of 6-phosphogluconate, glucose-6-phosphate, malate and lactate dehydrogenases, NADH-2-tetrazolium dehydrogenase, esterases, beta-glucuronidase and leucyl aminopeptidase in smears of desquamative cervico-vaginal cells of negative and positive Papanicolaou classes. Dihydrofolate dehydrogenase was found active in a greater percentage of cells and stronger in individual cells of cervical carcinoma than in normal, inflammatory or dysplastic cervix uteri. The other enzymes activities were less specifically increased in dyskaryotic cells.
By means of an original cytochemical method, folic acid was demonstrated "in situ" in peripheral white blood cells in acute and chronic granulocytic leukemia. In control blood smears folic acid-relevant granules were found predominantly in the nuclei of neutrophils and basophils. Eosinophils were found positive for folic acid reaction both in nuclei and cytoplasm. In leukemic undifferentiated cells, less marked in acute than in chronic granulocytic leukemia, the cytoplasms contained a great quantity of folate. Nuclei were fewer or nonreactive. Therefore the cytochemical localization may be related to the degree of the white cells differentiation.
The authors propose a hypothesis concerning the mechanism of dihydrofolate reductase reaction, suggesting a combined action of transhydrogenases and diaphorase particularly for this enzyme activity, and generally for the reductases.
A case of peritoneal mesothelioma was histopathologically diagnosed in a 40-year-old woman. Localized solitary firm nodules found in omentum appeared microscopically as trabecular proliferations with a plexiform pattern in a myxoid stroma. The tumors were penetrated by clefts and cystic cavities lined by a cuboidal or endotheliform epithelium. Rare psammoma bodies were present. The stroma was rich in hyaluronic acid and slightly positive for neutral mucopolysaccharides.