Spectrally resolved imaging of Cabot rings and Howell-Jolly bodies

The spectral characteristics of erythropoietic cellular inclusions stained by May-Grunwald Giemsa (MGG) were determined by spectrally resolved imaging. Multipixel spectra were obtained from Cabot rings and Howell-Jolly (HJ) bodies, displaying a range of wavelengths of transmitted light. The spectral characteristics of these inclusions were compared with those of isolated DNA, histones (type II) and arginine-rich histones (type VI), all stained by MGG. Results of single-cell spectroscopy show that the spectra of Cabot rings and HJ bodies share spectral characteristics with the type II and type VI histones. However, no resemblance was found between Cabot rings and DNA spectra. The spectral analysis of heterochromatin displayed a spectral pattern with characteristics of both DNA and histones, while the euchromatin showed a major contribution of the DNA component.