Fol. Biol. 2008, 54, 130-133
The RNA Content of Nucleolar Bodies Is Related to Their Size – a Cytochemical Study on Human Monocytes and Lymphocytes in Blood Smears and Blood Cytospins
The present study was undertaken to provide more information on the relationship between the nucleolar size and RNA density. Mature monocytes circulating in human peripheral blood appeared to be very convenient for such study because they contain multiple nucleoli of various sizes in one and the same nucleus. In addition, nucleoli without perinucleolar chromatin represented by nucleolar bodies are easy to be visualized by a simple cytochemical procedure for RNA demonstration. The diameter and density of NoBs in specimens stained for RNA were determined by computer-assisted measurements of individual cells. According to the results, the nucleolar RNA content was apparently related to the nucleolar size because the RNA density of small and large NoBs was practically the same. In addition, the diameter measurements also indicated that one or two of several NoBs in one nucleus were dominant – larger – than the others. It should also be mentioned that the diameter and RNA density of NoBs were studied in monocytes in peripheral blood smears regardless of their limited number. Additional study on lymphocytes indicated that the preparation procedure of smears modified both diameter and density of the measured parameters less than the preparation of cytospins as demonstrated by lower variability of the resulting values. Thus, the observed differences between smears and cytospins also indicated that the specimen preparation procedures should always be considered during evaluation of the nucleolar size or staining intensity of nucleoli or cytoplasm due to the presence of RNA.
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Funding
This study was supported in part by the Czech Ministry of Health – Research Project VZ 0002373601. The authors wish to express gratitude to the colleagues at the Transfusion Department for their support.
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Copyright
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
