Identification of possible biological stains for differential

staining of Normal and Malignant tumour tissue

Nor Hayati Othman,

Pathology dept, PPSP

hayati@kb.usm.my

Potential partner[s]

• Chemists

• Biologists

• Material engineers

Objectives

• To search for suitable natural stains derived from national plants of Malaysia

• To determine the differential staining of the new stain on human normal and malignant tumour tissue

Normal Vs cancer cell

Normal celln:c 1:4-8smooth nuclear membraneno nucleus

Malignant celln:cmore hyperchromatic [more basic]nuclear membrane coarsechromatic coarse, stippledmitosispleomorphic

Cytoplasm - ± opaque

Normal colon

Malignant colon

Normal prostate

Malignant prostate

Normal cevix

Malignant cervix

Normal lung

Malignant lung

Normal breast

Malignant breast

Normal thyroid

Malignant thyroid

Those are easy cases!!

• Subtle changes in cell require further tests

• Immunohistochemsitry– We stain the proteins found in cells eg muco-

proteins, keratins, vimentins, osteobilins, neurofilaments etc

– Every protein has different characteristics and could be stained

The stain should be

• Permanent

• Able to differentiate acidic nucleus from basic cytoplasm

• Able to pick up loss of desmosomes when normal epithelial cell become malignant

• Able to detect changes in nucleus when cells become malignant

How to verify the stains?

• 100 Normal and 100 Epithelial Malignant human tissues obtained from the archives of Pathology laboratory.

• The ability to differentiate will be scored and statistically analysed

• This is possible innovation …but probably time consuming.

• Require several trials and errors

• Perseverance will be rewarded!