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Abnormal Ultrastructural Changes in Sodium Periodate-stimulated Lymphocytes from Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia¹

American National Red Cross Blood Research Laboratory, Bethesda, Maryland 20014 [M. M.], and Department of Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics, Division of Biochemistry, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, 77550 [T. M. M., R. A. N., C. W. A.]

Lymphocytoid and plasmacytoid blasts have been identified in both normal and chronic lymphocytic leukemia lymphocyte cultures exposed to NalO₄. However, the appearance of ultrastructurally abnormal blasts in chronic lymphocytic leukemia cultures suggests that NalO₄ also stimulates the transformation of an abnormal subpopulation of lymphocytes. Development of invaginated nuclei produced morphological features similar to nuclear blebs, a cellular abnormality described in blood cells from other cancers. Furthermore, the consistent localization of nuclear invagination only to portions of nuclei adjacent to developing cytoplasmic microtubular complexes suggests a role for microtubules in the transformation process. The absence of these unusual blasts in cultures stimulated with other mitogens may indicate that these NalO₄-sensitive cells are not responsive to the more commonly used plant lectins.

¹ This work was supported by the American National Red Cross Blood Research Laboratory, Contribution 351, and by USPHS Grant CA 14525.

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at the American National Red Cross Blood Research Laboratory, 9312 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, Md. 20014.

³ Leukemia Society of America Special Fellow.

Received 4/26/76. Accepted 9/ 1/76.