Nucleolar organizer regions in the normal and carcinomatous epithelium of the uterine cervix. A morphometric study.

Nonhistone nucleoproteins associated with the nucleolar organizer regions (NORs), the genes coding for the ribosomal RNA precursor, can be visualized by silver staining. The black dots (AgNORs) appearing on the nuclei are thought to reflect cell differentiation. In this study, AgNORs were counted and their area was measured and compared with the area of the nuclei in normal and carcinomatous cells of the uterine cervix.