NMR in cancer. VII. Sodium-23 magnetic resonance of normal and cancerous tissues.

Sodium-23 magnetic resonance was performed on four types of cancers and six types of normal tissues of rats and mice. The spin-lattice relaxation time of the tumors was generally longer than that of the normal tissues, with the most marked difference occurring between rat liver (T1 = 6.5 msec) and Novikoff hepatoma (T1 =23.7 msec). Estimation of tissue sodium from the signal intensity of the resonance indicated that all four types of tumors contained more sodium than any of the normal tissues. 

PMID: 171689 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=171689

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J Cell Biol. 1981 Sep;90(3):769-77

Intracellular Na+:K+ ratios in human cancer cells as revealed by energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis.

Nagy IZ, Lustyik G, Nagy VZ, Zarándi B, Bertoni-Freddari C.

Intranuclear sodium, potassium, and chloride contents were measured by energy-dispersive x-ray microanalysis in  freeze-fractured, freeze-dried, bulk-tumor samples taken from 10 patients suffering from invasive urogenital cancers. Human biopsies were carried out during the first diagnostic interventions before any cytostatic treatment had been applied. Pathohistological diagnosis established the malignancy in each case. The cancers were classified in three types:
keratinizing, transitional cell, and hypernephroid carcinoma. More than 250 cell nuclei were measured from each type of cancer. The results were compared with those obtained in intact human urothelium taken from patients having no malignant processes. Proximal and distal tubular epithelial cell nuclei representing the origin of human hypernephroid cancer were also measured in rat kidney because corresponding healthy human material cannot be obtained. The analyses revealed, in all three types of cancer cells, that the average intranuclear sodium content increased more than three-fold, the potassium content decreased 32, 16, and 13%, respectively; meanwhile the chloride content increased, but to a lesser extent than did the sodium. The intranuclear Na+:K+ ratios were more than five-fold higher in the cancer cells on the average, and their distribution histograms were much broader than in the normal human urothelium and in the tubular cell nuclei of the rat
kidney. The results obtained fit well with the theory of Cone, C. D., Jr. 1971. J. Theor. Biol. 30: 151-181 according to which the sustained depolarization of the cell membrane may be of mitogenic effect.

PMID: 7287822 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=7287822

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Cancer Res. 1983 Nov;43(11):5395-402.

Correlation of malignancy with the intracellular Na+:K+ ratio in human thyroid tumors.

Nagy I, Lustyik G, Lukács G, Nagy V, Balázs G.

Energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis was applied on human intraoperative biopsy materials of different thyroid tumors. To ensure suitability of these tissue pieces for quantitative microanalysis in freeze-fractured, freeze-dried bulk specimens,sampling was carried out with strictly defined criteria. Benign adenomas and differentiated and anaplastic carcinomas were selected for the studies on the basis of pathohistological investigations of the same specimen. The results of the tumor
cells were compared to those obtained in apparently normal human epithelial cells. The number of normal cells analyzed was 349, whereas in the tumors 408, 423, and 891 cells were measured in the benign, differentiated, and anaplastic groups, respectively. Intracellular monovalent contents were calculated as percentage of cell dry mass; then, Na+:K+ molar ratios were calculated for each cell individually. Due mostly to the increase of Na+ content, the distribution histograms of the
Na+:K+ molar ratio show an increase in the number of cells with a higher Na+:K+ ratio with increasing malignancy of the tumors studied. The differences proved to be statistically highly significant by the chi 2 test. Thus, in human thyroid, increasing malignancy is associated with increasing intracellular Na+:K+ ratio. The results give further support to the theory of C. D. Cone (J. Theor. Biol., 30: 151-181, 1971) according to which the sustained depolarization of the cell membrane results in an increased rate of cell division.

PMID: 6616471 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=6616471&dopt=AbstractPlus1:  

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