The cytochemistry of human lymphoreticular subpopulations

For more than twenty years, haemotologists have used cytochemical stains as an aid to the identification and classification of cell types. This approach was particularly useful in distinguishing lymphoid from myeloid cells, and has been developed as a means of performing automated differential cell counts. More recently cytochemical methods have proved capable of identifying lymphoid subpopulations. Here John Cawley and Gordon Burns discuss why these techniques have become of general interest to immunologists.