[Quantitation of basophil cell-line in human bone marrow (author's transl)]

Appropriately fixed basophil cell-line can selectively be visualized by anionic dyes as toluidine blue. Typical activities for Leder's esterase distinguish individual maturity stages. Both methods were successively applied to bone marrow smears from 22 healthy subjects in order to assess the basophil population among the total marrow leukocytes (lymphocytes, monocytes and granulopoietic cell-lines) and the portion of each basophil maturity stages. Total basophils represent 0.45+/-0.13% of marrow leukocytes. Basophil precursors capable of division (promyelocytes and myelocytes) comprise 46.7%, mitoses 3.7+/-1.76% of the total marrow basophil population. The frequency distribution of these subpopulations approximated a normal distribution pattern. No clear central tendencies could be encountered in the dispersion of other stages. The low peripheral basophil counts, the high incidence of divisible precursors and the considerable mitotic activity suggest a short half-life time for blood basophils.