White blood cell cultures in genetic studies on the human mucopolysaccharidoses.

Cultures of white cells derived from peripheral blood of individuals homozygous and heterozygous for the inherited mucopolysaccharidoses revealed a distinct intracellular metachromatic staining with toluidine blue O. These short-term cultures circumvent the technical problems of skin fibroblast cultures and provide a simple screening procedure to detect the heterozygous state for the mucopolysaccharidoses, as well as offering an opportunity to study the heterozygous state of various inherited storage diseases.