LLight
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Water in malignant tissue, measured by cell refractometry and nuclear magnetic resonance. - PubMed - NCBI:
"Under these conditions the average water content of the cytoplasm of normal liver cells is calculated to be 87%. The cytoplasm of the liver tumour cells, on the other hand, have an average water content of over 92.5% and the cytoplasm of the cells of the ‘host liver tissue’ (tissue immediately adjacent to the tumour tissue) has an average water content of 89%."
"This meant that just over one third of all the intact living tumour cells examined had cytoplasmic refractive indices below 1.350, and consequently contained significantly more than 93% water. And as the cytoplasm of some of these cells appeared quite markedly bright in this mounting medium it seems likely that the upper end of the range of their water contents was at least 94% and probably nearer to 95%. This serves to indicate just how ‘watery’ these spherical cancer cells had become-very considerably more aqueous than any normal animal cells ever so far encountered. It also means that the averge refractive index of the cytoplasm of these cells is most unlikely to have been higher than 1.351, which implies that, at its very lowest, their average water content was in the region of 92.5%."
"One may legitimately ask, however, how much of the total water in the tissue is intracellular and how much is extracellular. In our present state of knowledge no answer is forthcoming. It could be that the NMR relaxation time measurements almost exclusively measure intracellular water; and the striking resemblance of Figs. 3A and 3B would seem to support this view; but this is in fact most unlikely because all the specimens removed from the livers for testing were ‘wet’ with extracellular fluid. Unquestionably some of their water was derived from the cellular environment. Extracellular liquid might be expected to be particularly in evidence in the tumour- bearing tissue since it always becomes to a greater or lesser degree inflamed. So probably both the cells comprising a tissue and their external environment become hydrated when a tumour develops in that tissue."
"What causes the increase in intracellular and extracellular water in these tumours and in the immediately adjacent tissues, which we have been able to demonstrate ? One possible cause can definitely be ruled out; it cannot be due to a change in the tonicity of the extracellular fluids causing the cells to swell and their contents to become more diluted. If this were so, removing the cells from the tissue and isolating them in isotonic media would cause them to contract again, and no difference between the refractive indices of the cytoplasm of the tumour cells and the normal cells from which they were ultimately derived would be apparent. Among the widely divergent views held on the aetiology of cancer there seems to be a certain measure of consensus that the cell membranes of malignant cells are probably abnormal with respect to their permeability properties, and the findings reported here could be interpreted as providing some additional support for this view."
"Under these conditions the average water content of the cytoplasm of normal liver cells is calculated to be 87%. The cytoplasm of the liver tumour cells, on the other hand, have an average water content of over 92.5% and the cytoplasm of the cells of the ‘host liver tissue’ (tissue immediately adjacent to the tumour tissue) has an average water content of 89%."
"This meant that just over one third of all the intact living tumour cells examined had cytoplasmic refractive indices below 1.350, and consequently contained significantly more than 93% water. And as the cytoplasm of some of these cells appeared quite markedly bright in this mounting medium it seems likely that the upper end of the range of their water contents was at least 94% and probably nearer to 95%. This serves to indicate just how ‘watery’ these spherical cancer cells had become-very considerably more aqueous than any normal animal cells ever so far encountered. It also means that the averge refractive index of the cytoplasm of these cells is most unlikely to have been higher than 1.351, which implies that, at its very lowest, their average water content was in the region of 92.5%."
"One may legitimately ask, however, how much of the total water in the tissue is intracellular and how much is extracellular. In our present state of knowledge no answer is forthcoming. It could be that the NMR relaxation time measurements almost exclusively measure intracellular water; and the striking resemblance of Figs. 3A and 3B would seem to support this view; but this is in fact most unlikely because all the specimens removed from the livers for testing were ‘wet’ with extracellular fluid. Unquestionably some of their water was derived from the cellular environment. Extracellular liquid might be expected to be particularly in evidence in the tumour- bearing tissue since it always becomes to a greater or lesser degree inflamed. So probably both the cells comprising a tissue and their external environment become hydrated when a tumour develops in that tissue."
"What causes the increase in intracellular and extracellular water in these tumours and in the immediately adjacent tissues, which we have been able to demonstrate ? One possible cause can definitely be ruled out; it cannot be due to a change in the tonicity of the extracellular fluids causing the cells to swell and their contents to become more diluted. If this were so, removing the cells from the tissue and isolating them in isotonic media would cause them to contract again, and no difference between the refractive indices of the cytoplasm of the tumour cells and the normal cells from which they were ultimately derived would be apparent. Among the widely divergent views held on the aetiology of cancer there seems to be a certain measure of consensus that the cell membranes of malignant cells are probably abnormal with respect to their permeability properties, and the findings reported here could be interpreted as providing some additional support for this view."