肺癌细胞核形态的分形分析

FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF CELL NUCLEUS OF LUNG CARCINOMA

目的在肿瘤细胞核形态的研究中引入分形论。方法选择肺癌标本１１例，在电镜下观察肿瘤细胞核的形态，通过分形图象处理系统，用数盒子的方法计算细胞核边界的分维值，并用ｔ检验在ＥＰＩ－５统计软件进行结果统计。结果肺癌细胞和支气管粘膜上皮细胞核边界的分维值大于其拓扑维值１（Ｐ＜０．０１），即它们是分形结构。肺癌细胞核边界的分维是１．１８３±０．０５４，大于支气管粘膜上皮细胞核的边界分维１．０５８±０．０１８（Ｐ＜０．００００１）。结论电镜下（放大倍数５０００～１２０００倍）肿瘤细胞核形态具有分形结构；分维定量地描述了肿瘤细胞核形态的不规则程度，对良恶性肿瘤的鉴别具有一定意义。

PURPOSE To see if fractal geometry could be applied to the study of tumor nucleus morphology.METHODS The nuclei of lung carcinoma were observed under the electron microscope (EM). The fractal dimension of the nuclear boundary was measured through box-counting method implemented on a fractal image process system (FIPS). Results were assessed using t test on the epi-5 statistical software.RESULTS This study showed that the mean fractal dimension of cell nuclei of lung carcinoma and normal bronchial epithelial cells were significantly greater than their topological dimension of 1 (P<0.01).Their nuclear boundaries are therefore fractal structures. The fractal dimension of the nucleus of lung carcinoma was significantly greater than that of the normal bronchial epithelial cells (1.183 vs 1.058, P<0.00001).CONCLUSIONS These results indicated that nucleus of the tumor cell, when observed under EM (the magnification is a between 5000 and 12 000), have a fractal structure. Fractal dimension is a better way of quantitating the nuclear shape and is a useful morphological method of discriminating the malignant from the normal cells.