The application of double fluorescence to the rapid selection of atypical cervical epithelial cells spread in monolayers

Monolayer spreads of cervical cells were prepared and reacted in sequence with two fluorescent probes. The nuclei were reacted with 4,6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), resulting in white fluorescence of all cell nuclei. Those cells possessing active guanidinobenzoatase (GB) bound the second probe, rhodamine-α-N-agmatine (Rh-Agm), resulting in orange cell surface fluorescence. Atypical epithelial cells possessed both active GB and enlarged nuclei; such cells could easily be recognised by their cytological appearance. We illustrate our results in the form of colour prints which are representative of our observations of cells in both normal and abnormal cervical spreads