Cancer cells show global changes in chromatin structure that lead to stable alterations in gene expression and potentially other nuclear functions. Small-angle neutron and x-ray scattering (SAXS) is one of the most informative and direct ways to study the chromatin structural organization on nanoscales and microscales. SAXS studies of the chromatin in the nuclei of a fibroblast (DF-2 cell line), the nuclei of a fibrosarcoma (HT-1080 cell line), and the nuclei of a carcinoma (A549 cell line) have been reported. The scattering intensity from DF-2 cell nuclei is described by cubic law ($Q^{-3}$) in the momentum transfer range from 0.05 to $0.5{\mathrm{nm}}^{-1}$ that corresponds to scattering from logarithmic fractal structure of channels which form the internal transport system of the nucleus. A different approach to processing experimental data is presented, involving the subtraction of the contribution from the intranuclear system of transport channels ($Q^{-3}$) from the total scattering intensity, which allows visualization of chromatin structures located inside the system of transport channels. Analysis of SAXS data for HT-1080 cell nuclei and A549 cell nuclei showed the presence of a large number of 30-nm supernucleosome structures of decompacted chromatin inside the logarithmic fractal structure of the transport system of the nucleus.

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• Cancer
• Epigenetics
• Cell nucleus
• Chromatin
• Small-angle x-ray scattering