Blood, 1957, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 324-335.
© 1957 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
The Submicroscopic Morphology of Gaucher Cells
QUIN B. DEMARSH 1 and
JEAN KAUTZ 1
1 Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, University of Washington,
Seattle 5, Washington.
The large cells characteristically found in the bone marrow and other organs
in Gaucher’s disease have been reinvestigated with the electron microscope, as
well as with phase contrast and polarizing microscopes and by standard staining
methods. The cytoplasm was filled with a number of dense elongate or crescent
shaped bodies. Each of these fibrils was in turn seen with the electron microscope
to be bounded by a single dense limiting membrane, and to contain a homogeneous appearing matrix in which were embedded numerous tubular-appearing
subunits. These tubular elements measured approximately 130 Å in diameter,
and were of very great length. It is suggested that these submicroscopic tubular
structures could represent the molecular kerasin or lipoprotein units known from
biochemical and histochemical evidence to be present in Gaucher cells.
Some details about the appearance of the ectoplasm in spread cells, and the
area near the cell border in cells fixed in situ, are reported. Electron micrographs
revealed a complex cell border which was extended into many small pseudopodia
and ridge-like projections. Numerous microvesicles about 600 Å in diameter were
found in the area near the cell membrane. This is taken as possible evidence of
transport of some substance across an active cell membrane. An attempt is made
to correlate these morphologic findings with the clinical and biochemical findings
of ourselves and others on Gaucher’s disease.
Submitted on July 3, 1956
Accepted on August 7, 1956
