Nucleolar silver-staining patterns related to cell cycle phase and cell generation of PHA-stimulated human lymphocytes.

Silver staining (Ag-I) was used to investigate changes in the nucleolar structure of PHA-stimulated human lymphocytes through the phases of the cell cycle, G1, S and G2. Ag-I patterns and cell cycle phases of individual cells were assessed by sequential silver staining, Feulgen staining, DNA microdensitometry and 3H-thymidine autoradiography. The morphology and number of Ag-I nucleoli in a particular cell depended upon the phase of the cell cycle reached and on the number of generations the cell had passed through in culture. Resting, unstimulated cells usually had one small silver positive nucleolus. During blast transformation, the silver stained nucleoli increased in number and size, and then fused to form one very large, rounded or irregular-shaped nucleolus which was present through all cell cycle phases of the first reproductive cycle. Many lymphocytes developed a band-shaped nucleolus during their first S phase in culture. Lymphocytes at all cell cycle stages of the second and third generations after PHA-stimulation had multiple nucleoli whose combined areas approximated that of the single large nucleolus observed in first generation cells.