Blood, 1958, Vol. 13, No. 8, pp. 725-731.
© 1958 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
The Ultrastructure of a "Fibrillar Formation" of
Leukemic Human Blood
JAMES A. FREEMAN 1 and
MONROE S. SAMUELS 1
1 Department of Anatomy and Pathology, Louisiana State University School of
Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana.
A previously unsuspected cytoplasmic organoid, fibrillar in nature, was
discovered by Bessis and Breton-Gorius. This structure exhibits a very high
degree of structural organization, and appears as a barrel-shaped fibrillar
formation, opened at both ends and enclosing an associated granular component within. Comparable fibrillar formations are rarely found in normal
cells, even in the simplest form of a few closely packed fibrils. In its highest
degree of structural organization, the whorl, the fibrillar formation has been
found only in the blast or promyelocytes stages. Although the overall dimensions of this structure are well within the resolving limits of the light microscope, it is not visible in fresh, Wright stained or Giemsa stained preparations.
Submitted on December 20, 1957
Accepted on February 15, 1958
