Lymphocytes: Origin, Structure, and Interrelationships 



Of particular interest to me have been the types of cells shown in Figures 

 1-9 through 1-12. Many of these reticular cells have nuclear patterns coarser 

 and more definitive in morphology than those seen in the usual blast forms 

 (hematopoietic reticular cells) of leukemic reticuloendotheliosis. The nuclei 

 are comparable to the nuclei of histiocytes and macrophages, and the cyto- 

 plasm often has no clear delimiting membrane. These reticular cells are 

 comparable to the hemohistioblasts of Ferrata 33 and are often confused with 

 cells that are actually damaged cells (with ruptured nuclear membranes and 







Fig. 1-2. Imprint from part of germinal center of same hmph 

 node shown in Fig. 1-1. Note 5 mitotic figures (arrows) and reticular 

 cell with stai nable bodies (engulfed lymphocytes in various stages 

 of digestion) designated by X. Note plasma cell above phagocyte. 

 (X 220) 



frayed cytoplasm) . but since the former undergo mitosis even without appar- 

 ent intact cytoplasmic boundaries, I have maintained that they are not just 

 damaged cells but rather are probably the cells that are most comparable to 

 the fixed reticular cells. This same cell type can be found in small numbers 

 in films of nonleukemic bone marrow where again I have thought it was 

 probably one of the fixed reticular cells that had torn loose from its syn- 

 cytium. 



If one combines the morphologic evidence gleaned from examination of the 

 transitional forms from phagocytic reticular cells (Figs. 1-2 through 1-6) to 

 reticular cells in which the evidence of previous phagocytosis is obscure (Figs. 



