Charcot-Leyden crystals. Formation from primate and lack of formation from nonprimate eosinophils.

Charcot-Leyden crystals develop spontaneously in certain diseases of man and can be formed within minutes from eosinophils lysed with a surface-active agent (Aerosol-OT). Treated human eosinophils examined by electron microscopy showed the general features of cell lysis. After disruption of the eosinophilic granule of man, there remained an insoluble crystalline core, which was now more dispersed, a few tubular structures resembling microtubules and a fine granular accumulation around the periphery of the granule. It is suggested that such dispersion represents rearrangement of the crystalline structure allowing the material of the core to be incorporated into a Charcot-Leyden crystal. In guinea pig eosinophils, Charcot-Leyden crystals were not found even after prolonged lysis. By electron microscopy, the cellular changes in guinea pig eosinophils were generally similar to, but developed more slowly than, those in human eosinophils. Tubular structures detected in the cortical region of the granule were more numerous than thosenoted in the disrupted eosinophil granule of man. The different reaction to injury of the eosinophils of man and those of the guinea pig appears to be characteristic for each of the two species.