Differences Between Lymphocytes of Leukemic and Non-Leukemic Patients with Respect to Morphologic Features, Motility, and Sensitivity to Guinea Pig Serum

Observations were made on viable lymphocytes in 22 specimens of blood from 20 patients to test whether leukemic lymphocytes have distinctive characteristics. Special slide-chambers were used in this study. The features suggestive of leukemic lymphocytes were: large chromatin masses, prominent nucleoli, abnormal size of cells, flagella-like structures, reduced motility, and an increase in the sensitivity to inactivated guinea pig sera. An index summarizing these abnormal features selected correctly 9 blood specimens from 7 patients with chronic lymphocytic or lymphosarcoma-cell leukemia. Distinctive abnormalities of the living lymphocytes were not found in the blood of 3 patients who were diagnosed lymphosarcoma and had normal lymphocyte counts and some lymphosarcoma-cell lymphocytes in stained blood films. Blood lymphocytes from 8 patients with infectious mononucleosis, diabetes, hemochromatosis, and other diseases were correctly identified as non-leukemic. The findings obtained in this study indicate that viable leukemic lymphocytes are characterized by abnormal morphologic features, reduced motility, and increased sensitivity to heat-inactivated guinea pig sera.