Variations in the activity of nucleolar organizers in different tissues, demonstrated by silver staining of human normal and leukemic cells.

A simple silver-staining technique that demonstrates those nucleolar organizing regions of metaphase chromosomes which are transcriptionally active during the preceding interphase (AgNORs) has been applied to cells obtained from the bone marrow and mitogen-stimulated peripheral blood lymphocyte cultures of hematologically normal individuals and patients with various forms of leukemia. In the majority of bone marrow cells from the normal controls and many of the patients, the number of cells with detectable AgNORs, and the staining intensities in those cells which were Ag+, were markedly reduced compared with the levels found in blood lymphocytes. The numbers of cells having satellite associations and the numbers of chromosomes participating in these associations also generally reflected the proportions of AgNORs present. When patterns of bone marrow silver staining were compared between patients with leukemia, distinct differences were found which could be correlated with cytology. It is suggested that different cell types have characteristic AgNOR staining profiles, reflecting specific regulation of ribosomal RNA synthesis in particular cell lineages. AgNOR staining may indicate, therefore, the predominant cell types that divide in the bone marrows of patients with different forms of leukemia.