Nuclear Blebs in Human Leukaemic Cells

Abstract

THIS is a preliminary report of a nuclear bleb phenomenon which I have found in cells of a number of human leukaemias, especially in monoblasts of acute monocytic leukaemia. This phenomenon is the same as that reported by Epstein et al.¹ and Achong and Epstein² as a characteristic of Burkitt lymphoma cells and by Törő and Olah³ and Sebuwufu⁴ for developing thymocytes. This specific type of nuclear bleb seems to arise from extrusion of the nuclear envelope and nucleoplasm in arching sheets. Those who reported it for Burkitt lymphoma cells suggested that it might be a characteristic of the malignant state. The authors reporting the same type of nuclear blebbing for developing human and guinea-pig thymocytes suggested that it was related to the functional development and differentiation of the cells. My report extends these observations to another type of related cell in an early (and malignant) state of differentiation.