Blood, 1955, Vol. 10, No. 12, pp. 1204-1213.
© 1955 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
The Cytophotometric Estimation of the Desoxyribonucleic
Acid (DNA) Content of Individual Plasma Cells from
Multiple Myeloma and Nonspecific Plasmacytoses
NICHOLAS L. PETRAKIS 1 and
LOIS J. FOLSTAD 1
1 Cancer Research Institute, Department of Medicine, and Laboratory of Experimental Oncology, University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, Calif.
The cytophotometric technic employing the Feulgen reagent was used to
determine the relative amount of DNA in the nuclei of individual myeloma and
plasma cells aspirated from the bone marrow. Individual myeloma cells were
found to contain markedly elevated amounts of DNA as compared to that in
the plasma cells of non-specific plasmacytoses. Myeloma cells were found to
contain geometric multiples (2, 4, 8) of the amount of DNA present in normal
lymphocytes, and the degree of DNA "ploidy" was related to the morphologic
stage of immaturity. Polyploid DNA values were not found in the non-specific
plasmacytoses. The possible mechanisms of formation were discussed. The
findings are interpreted as suggesting the presence of a basic alteration in the
quantitative DNA-chromosome relationship in myeloma cells, and they offer
additional support for the separation of the myeloma plasmacytoses from nonspecific plasmacytoses.
Submitted on April 26, 1955
Accepted on August 3, 1955
