Implementation of accurate and fast DNA cytometry by confocal microscopy in 3D

Background: DNA cytometry is a powerful method for measuring genomic instability. Standard approaches that measure DNA content of isolated cells may induce selection bias and do not allow interpretation of genomic instability in the context of the tissue. Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) provides the opportunity to perform 3D DNA content measurements on intact cells in thick histological sections. Because the technique is technically challenging and time consuming, only a small number of usually manually selected nuclei were analyzed in different studies, not allowing wide clinical evaluation. The aim of this study was to describe the conditions for accurate and fast 3D CLSM cytometry with a minimum of user interaction to arrive at sufficient throughput for pilot clinical applications. Methods: Nuclear DNA was stained in 14 μm thick tissue sections of normal liver and adrenal stained with either YOYO-1 iodide or TO-PRO-3 iodide. Different pre-treatment strategies were evaluated: boiling in citrate buffer (pH 6.0) followed by RNase application for 1 or 18 hours, or hydrolysis. The image stacks obtained with CLSM at microscope magnifications of x40 or x100 were analyzed off-line using in-house developed software for semi-automated 3D fluorescence quantitation. To avoid sectioned nuclei, the top and bottom of the stacks were identified from ZX and YZ projections. As a measure of histogram quality, the coefficient of variation (CV) of the diploid peak was assessed. Results: The lowest CV (10.3%) was achieved with a protocol without boiling, with 1 hour RNase treatment and TO-PRO-3 iodide staining, and a final image recording at x60 or x100 magnifications. A sample size of 300 nuclei was generally achievable. By filtering the set of automatically segmented nuclei based on volume, size and shape, followed by interactive removal of the few remaining faulty objects, a single measurement was completely analyzed in approximately 3 hours. Conclusions: The described methodology allows to obtain a largely unbiased sample of nuclei in thick tissue sections using 3D DNA cytometry by confocal laser scanning microscopy within an acceptable time frame for pilot clinical applications, and with a CV small enough to resolve smaller near diploid stemlines. This provides a suitable method for 3D DNA ploidy assessment of selected rare cells based on morphologic characteristics and of clinical samples that are too small to prepare adequate cell suspensions.