Effect of Chemotherapy With Cyclophosphamide on the Buoyant Density Separation and Volume Distributions of Lymphocytes in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and Lymphosarcoma

Summary

Lymphocytes of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were separated by bovine serum albumin density gradients and classified by electronic cell volume. Many density populations having differing volume distributions existed in the circulating blood. The density of the lymphocytes was related to cell size and morphologic features. In general, the larger cells with predominantly diffuse chromatin were less dense than the smaller cells with predominantly condensed chromatin. The lymphocyte size distributions revealed that most lymphocytes in CLL patients were smaller than those of hematologically normal individuals, whereas most cells from lymphosarcoma were larger than normal. Combined electronic cell volume analysis and density gradient separation were necessary to observe the populations of small lymphocytes. These small lymphocyte populations were the most sensitive to Cytoxan destruction. Prednisone was nonselective in the destruction of leukemic Iymphocytes.