[An improved method for isolating blood monocytes]

The authors have improved the method for the gradient isolation of monocytes from human whole blood: an expensive reagent, percoll, is replaced by verograffin, an x-ray contrast agent. Monocytes were isolated by this method from the blood of 8 normal subjects. The isolated monocytes were identified and their population composition studied electronmicroscopically, cytochemically, and immunocytochemically. The monocyte population of healthy donors was found morphologically and cytochemically heterogeneous, consisting of 4 types of cells, forming on the monocytogram stable (in their per cent shares) classes. The improved method for monocyte isolation and the results of morphometric analysis may be used to assess the system of human mononuclear phagocytes in various diseases.