Morphology of mast cells in chronic mast cell leukemia (MCL)
Bone marrow smears obtained from patients with chronic MCL (A, B) and acute MCL (C) were stained with Wright-Giemsa solution. In chronic MCL, mast cells are more mature cells, sometimes with a spindle-shaped (atypical) morphology (A) but often also with a mature morphology resembling normal tissue mast cells (B). By contrast, in patients with acute MCL, mast cells are immature and often represent metachromatically granulated blast cells (C).