On the Experimental Production of Showers of "Non-Motile" Leucocytes.

Abstract

Schilling, in 1908, while studying the degeneration of white blood cells under the dark field microscope, found that dying leucocytes showed a definite swelling of the nucleus, and a change in the size and refractivity of the specific granules. Similar changes were later described by Sabin as taking place in the death of the polymorphonuclear neutrophilic leucocytes. In the latter case, these changes were observed while studying the white blood cells by means of the supra-vital technique. Sabin was able to follow every step in the change from the living, motile polymorphonuclear neutrophilic leucocytes to the dead, unstained cells, which she called “non-motile” leucocytes. She found that these changes could be produced by such technical means as pressure and heat, but after elimination of these errors she still found characteristic non-motile degenerating forms, and concluded that they represent a normal stage in the death and disintegration of the leucocytes. At the same time, she observed that these non-motile cells tended to appear in small showers, rather than in constant numbers. Later, in a detailed study of the normal rhythm of the white blood cells in the human, Sabin, Cunningham, Doan and Kindwall confirmed the above observations concerning the appearance of non-motile cells in showers. They found in addition that these showers occurred at approximately hourly intervals. In the course of a series of experiments in which we were studying the qualitative effect of sodium citrate, given intravenously, on the white blood cells, we were impressed by the large numbers of non-motile cells which regularly appeared following the administration of the citrate. A series of detailed experiments was then carried out to determine the exact character of these showers. It was found that the intravenous injection of a moderate amount of sodium citrate was uniformly followed by non-motile showers, which were many times greater than those seen in the normal rabbit.