Changes in nucleolar morphology during macrophage development in Hodgkin's disease: a morphometric study

In view of the importance of nucleoli in the regulation of cell growth and protein synthesis, and in consideration of the fact that morphological changes have been found in mononuclear phagocytes in patients with malignant lymphoma, a study was made of nucleolar ultrastructure during the development of blood monocytes into macrophages in 22 patients with untreated Hodgkin's disease, with the findings being compared with those in 20 normal subjects. Nucleolar volume, surface area, volume fraction within the nucleus, surface-to-volume ratio and number of nucleolar profiles per section were measured by using morphometric methods at intervals over a 6-day period of suspension culture; the results were subjected to multivariate and univariate analyses of variance. Differences between the subject groups were statistically highly significant. Overall, the findings indicated that while nucleoli became larger, rounder, and more prominent during culture, the changes were less marked in the Hodgkin's group, where there was also a decrease in nucleolar numbers. The nucleolar changes would be consistent with the macrophage development pattern being disturbed in Hodgkin's disease and would be in keeping with the known mononuclear phagocyte dysfunction in these patients.