CRITERIA OF THE AGE OF LYMPHOCYTES IN THE PERIPHERAL BLOOD

Abstract

The study of blood from rabbits with normal and with hyperactive lymphatic tissue reveals, in the latter, a greater percentage of lymphocytes with heavily basophilic cytoplasm and numerous mitochondria. This indicates that cytoplasmic basophilia and mitochondrial content can serve as criteria of the degree of maturity of the lymphocyte, these characters having the same significance in this relation as obtains with other blood cells. Basophilia is the more evident and reliable indicator of youth of the cells. The classification of lymphocytes into three groups, according to degree of basophilia, has yielded figures which show the proportions of the three to be relatively stable in blood from normal adult human beings and rabbits.