Blood, 1960, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 449-465.
© 1960 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
The Ultrastructure and Genesis of Auer Bodies
JAMES A. FREEMAN 1
1 Department of Anatomy, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New
Orleans, La.
The light microscopic morphology, chemical composition, ultrasonic fractionation, ultracentrifugal separation and light absorption characteristics of
Auer bodies have all been described. However, since the initial observations
by John Auer in 1906 and until the advent of electron microscopy, few data
have been added to elucidate the structure of these bodies. With the aid of
the electron microscope, Auer bodies have been found to be coacervates of
laminated, homogeneous, crystalline plaques with the long axis of the plaques
in the same plane as the long axis of the rod. The ultracytologic resemblance
between Auer bodies and cytoplasmic granulation supports previous histochemical evidence suggesting the genesis of Auer bodies from cytoplasmic
granules.
Existing evidence indicates that the newly discovered fibrillar formation
and the recently described granule-vacuole body are the same structure.
Although histochemical studies show similarities between these structures and
Auer bodies, they are architecturally unrelated and probably have distinctly
different pathophysiologic significance.
Submitted on July 15, 1959
Accepted on August 20, 1959
