Ultrastructural study of blood cells in toxic oil syndrome

The toxic oil syndrome is a new multisystemic disease, linked to the consumption of denatured rapeseed oil, which occurred in Spain in 1981. The hematological symptoms, present in about all the patients since the beginning of this disease have been dominated by leukocytosis and eosinophilia. The ultrastructural study of circulating blood cells has shown the presence of multiple abnormal lipid vacuoles in the eosinophil series and less frequently in neutrophils, monocytes and lymphocytes, associated to a high phagocytic activity. Bone marrow cells contrasted by the absence of lipid vacuoles in any hemopoietic series, while phagocytic activity and cytoplasmic processes were abundant. Even though patients entered the chronic phase of the disease, the hematological symptoms have spontaneously corrected themselves.