CORRELATION OF 2 ARGYROPHILIC NUCLEOLAR ORGANIZER REGION COUNTING METHODS WITH THE KI-67 LABELING INDEX IN UTERINE SMOOTH-MUSCLE CELL TUMORS

The argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNOR) are silver staine d granules that are thought to correlate with cell proliferation activ ity. Two AgNOR counting methods: the mean AgNOR count (mAgNOR, the mea n number of AgNOR granules in 100 cells) and the AgNOR proliferative i ndex (pAgNOR, the percentage of cells exhibiting five or more AgNOR gr anules per nuclei) have been proposed. In this study, the two counting methods were applied to 58 cases of normal uterine corpus and uterine corpus tumors and were compared with the Ki-67 labeling index (Ki-67 LI) using MIB-1 monoclonal antibody and other histopathological criter ia. Notable differences in the number of AgNOR and the Ki-67 LI were o bserved between benign and malignant smooth muscle tissue. Histopathol ogic features are well correlated to the proliferative activity of tum ors. Although the most reliable method of predicting malignant potenti al cannot be determined, the methods outlined by this study are though t to be highly useful in assessing proliferative activities.