Classes of skin fibroblast metachromasia in cystic fibrosis correlated with growth parameters.

Metachromasia of cultured skin fibroblasts from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), and 
the assignment of the fibroblasts to one of three classes after 
the morphological distribution of the metachromatic staining, have been described by 
Danes and Bearn (1968, 1969) and Danes (1969). In two previous 
studies from this hospital (Lykkegaard & Jacobsen 1975, Lykkegaard & Thuesen 
Pedersen 1975) the clinical, radiological, and functional severity of the lung 
disease and the serum protein pattern in CF patients were studied 
in relation to classes of skin fibroblast metachromasia. It was found 
that class III patients tended to be more severely affected than 
class II patients, and more than class I + II patients, 
and, possibly, class I patients were also more severely affected than 
class II patients. Sproul and Huang (1964), in a study of 
growth patterns in cystic fibrosis, found a significant correlation between severity 
of the respiratory disease and height and weight retardation. In the 
present study, height and weight development in 98 CF patients are 
correlated with class of skin fibroblast metachromasia. 