Cytology and cytochemistry of the leukemia cell.

In contrast to the modern science of molecular biology, cytology and cytochemistry of human blood cells have a long history. Some of the principal mechanisms of protein biosynthesis were already discovered with cytological methods in the 19th century. In 1899, a young French anatomist, GANIER (8), demonstrated in his thesis the relationship between specific morphologicd changes in the cytoplasm of pancreatic glands and the secret production of these glands. During the synthesis of this specific pancreatic secret, the cytoplasm becomes basophilic. GANIER named this active cytoplasm: ergastoplasm, meaning that this cytoplasm produces something, however, we know today that this "something" is actually protein. With the lightmicroscope GARNIER has demonstrated in his experiments a relationship between acid groups in the cytoplasm and protein synthesis. Forty years later BRACHET (3) and CASPERSON (4) demonstrated by cytochemical methods that this acid groups consisted of RNA and they found the dependent relationship between RNA synthesis and protein synthesis. Today we know that the cause of GANIER9s basophilia is the high RNA content of the ribosomes, which are the centre of protein synthesis (5) This short historical introduction has shown us that lightmicroscopy is necessary and not a hopeless method in modern biological research. Studying the cytology and cytochemistry of the human leukemic cell, we can prove how valuable the lightmicroscope is. Therefore, we must ask ourselves the following questions: