The ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid content of mononuclear leukocytes of different sizes studied by ultraviolet cytophotometry.

Abstract

Rat mononuclears (lymphocytes and monocytes) were studied for total nucleic acid content by means of ultraviolet cytophotometry. Another set was treated with ribonuclease, and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was measured using the same technique. It was found that total nucleic acid content (DNA and RNA) increases linearly with cell size from about 20 units in lymphocytes having 5 µ in diameter up to around 30 units in cells having 12-14 µ in diameter; this is to say, an almost 50% increase for a 6-7-fold enlargement. After ribonuclease treatment, however, the value of the integrated extinction (DNA) tends to remain constant for different cell sizes. A 650% variation in area is accompanied by a DNA change of less than 6%. The differences between treated and nontreated cells are nonsignificant for populations having up to 7.0-7.5 µ in diameter, which implies that small lymphocytes either have a negligible amount of RNA or that the instrument is not sensitive enough to detect it (less than 7% of the DNA content, this figure being the random error of our technique). These differences become highly significant for mononuclears having 8 µ or more in diameter. Therefore, while DNA tends to be constant and independent from cell size, RNA content tends to be harmoniously inconstant, since it is correlated with cell (and nuclear) size and degree of chromatin diffusion.