Abstract
Amoeboid Movement of Leucocytes. There is some doubt whether the leucocytes in stored blood are still alive and functional. After 14 days storage with 2% yeast extract the white cell layer was removed from a test tube of blood (donor E.M.) and mixed with a drop of brilliant cresyl blue, a supra-vital stain that dyes the nucleus. Examined microscopically at about 25°C the damaged cells so evident in smears were not seen; many of the leucocytes showed active amoeboid movement, others appeared dark, granular, and moribund. In blood of this age the polymorphonuclear leucocytes and the medium-sized lymphocytes have about the same size, but can be distinguished by the way they move. The former in old blood have band-like nuclei that change from U-shape to Y and J-shape; a portion may break off and later reunite with the rest of the nucleus. After 2 weeks the few neutrophiles left still move with the cytoplasm pushing ahead as described by Kubie and Schultz 1 in the cat. The lymphocytes put out narrow pseudopodia of nuclear material as described by Lewis 2 and by Bloom. 3
Neutrophilic Leucocytes. Sabin and coworkers 4 found that there is a rapid periodic death of neutrophiles “in showers” in the circulating blood, but that this is not true of lymphocytes; about one-fifth of the neutrophilic leucocytes died every 24 hours. In the yeast extract experiments the neutrophiles decreased in the first day by about 25% of their original number in the controls and the total number of lymphocytes was maintained with a loss of only 23% to 28% for over 2 weeks. The polymorphonuclear leucocytes became rounded cells with a band or kidney-shaped nucleus and clear pale cytoplasm as observed by Clark, Clark, and Rex 5 in lizards and rabbits.
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