Rosette and Granule-Hyaline Phagocytes in Tissue Cultures Stained Supravitally with Neutral Red.

Abstract

The rosette and the diffuse granule types of phagocytes were observed by Sabin, Doan and Cunningham 1 in peritoneal exudates stained supravitally with neutral red. The latter type may contain few dye granules or none whatever, 2 , 3 and is therefore called the diffuse granule-hyaline type. There is no proof that either of these phagocytes is related to the peroxydase-reacting monocyte of Naegeli. 4 In the human blood there is some evidence that the Naegeli monocyte is neither the rosette nor the diffuse granule-hyaline cell. 3 In the human, the epithelioid cells of the tubercle of lymph glands contain the largest and most characteristic rosettes seen, but these cells in smears do not react to the peroxydase test that colors intensely the Naegeli monocytes in the blood smears of the same individual. 6 The final conclusion of Cunningham, Sabin and Doan 5 is that the rosette type arises from the reticulum, and that the diffuse granule cell comes from endothelium. These investigators did not find the rosette cell in the lymph nodes. In my experiments 2 , 3 the rosette cell was found to be abundant in the lymph nodes where it was identified as the reticulo-endothehal cell. In tissue cultures of rabbit lymph nodes the rosette cell is almost the sole phagocyte present. On the other hand, the phagocytes of the tissue cultures of rabbit liver are almost exclusively of the diffuse granule-hyaline type. 6 On the basis of these findings, considered together with the other data set forth in the papers cited, the conclusions reached were that the rosette cell arose from the reticulo-endothelium of lymphoid tissue and that the diffuse granule-hyaline phagocyte arose from the vascular endothelium.