Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining of immature platelets in donors

Glycogen in platelets (PLTs) on smears of peripheral blood of 40 donors was investigated by the periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) method. Three groups were formed. Group 1 was consisted of 21 men undergoing the donor selection procedure. Additionally, 9 first-time donors undergoing plateletpheresis (Group 2) and 10 donors who frequently underwent platelet apheresis (Group 3) were studied as a model of relative thrombocytopenia. Cell sizes were measured with the use of a Image Analyzer "ASPBC" (Russia). The training procedure and classification of PAS-blood PLTs were made on the basis of expert evaluation. In this article, we have established three facts. First, the PAS-positive PLT area was larger than that of the PAS-negative cells (9.5 ± 3.6 sq.mkm vs. 3.9 ± 1.3 sq.mkm, p < 0.001, n = 21). The PAS-positivity of PLTs was 23.1 ± 9.2%. Second, the PAS-positivity correlated (r(S) = 0.63, p < 0.05) with the immature platelets fraction (IPF %), determined using Sysmex XE-2100. The mean IPF was 2.1 ± 1.0% (range 0.3-4.6%). Third, using the IPF% values obtained in Group 1, we found a significantly higher level of IPF in the samples both in Group 2 [mean value 4.2 ± 2.0% (range 1.9-7.0), p < 0.01] and in Group 3 [mean value 5.1 ± 2.5% (range 1.2-8.6), p < 0.004] with relative thrombocytopenia [Group 2: median 198 (95% confidence interval, CI 166-227) vs. median 229 (95% CI 206-267), p < 0.05; Group 3: median 142.5 (95% CI 132-173) vs. median 214.5 (95% CI 196-267), p < 0.01] after plateletpheresis. There was also a significant difference between the pre- and post-plateletpheresis for IPF% in Group 2 and Group 3: median 1.7 (95% CI 1.4-4.0) vs. median 4.0 (95% CI 2.7-5.8), p < 0.05 and median 4.0 (95% CI 2.7-6.0) vs. median 5.1 (95% CI 3.3-6.9), p < 0.01. The increased IPF shows a correlation with the PAS positivity [r(S) = 0.5 (p = 0.14) and r(S) = 0.6 (p = 0.05)] which has a tendency to increase [Group 2: median PAS 24.3% (95% CI 14.8-26.2) vs. median PAS 30% (95% CI 21.6-34.2), p = 0.05 and Group 3: median PAS 31% (95% CI 19-36.4) vs. median PAS 27.4% (95% CI 18.7-34.9), p = 0.35] and correlated negatively with the decrease in the platelet count [Group 2: r(S) = -0.7 (p = 0.21) and Group 3: r(S) = -0.5 (p = 0.14)]. Our findings support the significance of platelet evaluation by light microscopy to understand why morphologic changes of thrombocytopoiesis may be expected in thrombocytopenia due to donation of platelets.