The clinical significance of extracellular material (ECM) in L.E.-cell preparations. I. Analysis at the time of the first abnormal test.

Abstract

AS the initial event in L.E.-cell formation an abnormal serum gamma globulin (the L.E.-cell factor) reacts with leukocyte nuclei, causing them to swell, to lose their lobulation and chromatin pattern and thus to become amorphous, homogeneous globules (Fig. 1). Secondarily, these globular bodies of altered nuclear material may be phagocytized by intact leukocytes to form typical L.E. cells (Fig. 1). Nonphagocytized nuclear bodies (hereafter designated extracellular material, or ECM), histologically identical to the L.E.-cell inclusion, are found in the absence of L.E. cells, as well as in positive L.E.-cell preparations. Although great diagnostic importance has been attached to the finding . . .