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. 1972 Apr;10(4):555–570.

Surface structure of normal and leukaemic lymphocytes. I. Effect of mitogens

P J L Holt, S G Pal, D Catovsky, S M Lewis
PMCID: PMC1713112  PMID: 5034244

Abstract

Scanning electron microscopy has been used to examine the surface structure of normal and leukaemic lymphocytes and the effect of specific and non-specific mitogens on them. Both types of mitogens produce an increase in the surface irregularity of the normal cell but not of the leukaemic cell. The uropod is seen to consist of a fork-like structure the prongs of which are joined together by a fine membrane.

The use of the technique of ionic etching on the surface of the lymphocyte has shown variation in the physical hardness of the surface of the lymphocyte as a result of non-specific mitogen stimulation only. The surface of the leukaemic lymphocyte was considerably more resistant to etching than normal.

These results in conjunction with the results of other workers suggest that non-specific activation picks out the thymic dependent cells because these have weaker cell surface membranes and by corollary the difficulty in stimulating leukaemic lymphocytes is due to the increased resilience of this surface membrane. Thus the differentiation of thymic dependent lymphocytes by non-specific stimulation may be purely fortuitous and not directly related to their physiological function.

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