On the Experimental Production of Showers of “Non-Motile” Leucocytes. ∗

Abstract

Schilling, 1 in 1908, while studying the degeneration of white blood cells under the dark field microscope, found that dying leucocytes showed a definite swelling of the nucleus, and a change in the size and refractivity of the specific granules. Similar changes were later described by Sabin 2 as taking place in the death of the polymorphonuclear neutrophilic leucocytes. In the latter case, these changes were observed while studying the white blood cells by means of the supra-vital technique. Sabin was able to follow every step in the change from the living, motile polymorphonuclear neutrophilic leucocytes to the dead, unstained cells, which she called “non-motile” leucocytes. She found that these changes could be produced by such technical means as pressure and heat, but after elimination of these errors she still found characteristic non-motile degenerating forms, and concluded that they represent a normal stage in the death and disintegration of the leucocytes. At the same time, she observed that these non-motile cells tended to appear in small showers, rather than in constant numbers. Later, in a detailed study of the normal rhythm of the white blood cells in the human, Sabin, Cunningham, Doan and Kindwall 3 confirmed the above observations concerning the appearance of non-motile cells in showers. They found in addition that these showers occurred at approximately hourly intervals.

In the course of a series of experiments in which we were studying the qualitative effect of sodium citrate, given intravenously, on the white blood cells, we were impressed by the large numbers of non-motile cells which regularly appeared following the administration of the citrate. A series of detailed experiments was then carried out to determine the exact character of these showers. It was found that the intravenous injection of a moderate amount of sodium citrate was uniformly followed by non-motile showers, which were many times greater than those seen in the normal rabbit.