1981 Chapters (Layout Features)

F-Actin Patterns Quantitated with Fl-Phalloidin in Skin Fibroblasts of Individuals Genetically Predisposed to Colon Cancer

Nicholson, N. B.; Verderame, M.; Lipkin, M.; Pollack, Robert

Fl-phalloidin is a chemical probe for F-actin distribution in fixed cultured cells. Skin fibroblast cells from an individual can be distributed into four classes according to number and size of structures containing F-actin visualized with fluorescence microscopy after Fl-phalloidin staining. The distribution shifts significantly when skin fibroblasts of persons with the inherited colonic neoplasm ACR are compared with cells from unaffected individuals. Skin fibroblasts from cancer patients of non-ACR colon cancer-prone families, and from cancer patients in families with multiple primary tumors, show normal F-actin distribution. These data confirm earlier studies which used antibody to actin (Kopelovich et al. 1980). Skin fibroblasts from one child of an ACR patient have an abnormal F-actin distribution, even though this child is currently free of symptoms of the disease. Fl-phalloidin permits a prospective study of such individuals to determine whether F-actin distribution detected by a chemical probe can be used prognostically.