A Study of the Morphology of the Living Cells of Blood and Bone Marrow in Supravital Films with the Phase Contrast Microscope

Abstract

Abstract The cells of the blood and bone marrow from various blood dyscrasias have been studied in the living state and compared with normal cells of the same lineage by means of vital films and phase contrast and bright field microscopes. The precise morphology of the cells of the blood and bone marrow in a normal and diseased condition is most accurately obtained by an examination of the cells in a living condition. Such studies are possible with supravital staining and the phase contrast microscope. Since cellular structure and function are interdependent an alteration in one is necessarily reflected in the other. Further insight into the chemical structure and composition of cells of the blood and bone marrow in normal and diseased conditions may be obtained from cytochemical investigations. However, it is essential that cytochemical localization of substances within the cell must have its foundation in the morphology of the intact living cell.