Distribution of silver stained proteins (SSPs) in ring-shaped nucleoli of leukemic lymphocytes.

The distribution of silver stained proteins (SSPs) was investigated in ring shaped nucleoli of lymphocytes of the peripheral blood of patients suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B type). As expected, SSPs were present in fibrillar centers and adjacent nucleolar regions which appeared as bud and protrusion-like structures. The inhibition of the nucleolar RNA transcription by cultivation of leukemic lymphocytes at low temperature (4 degrees C) resulted in a significant reduction of these structures at fibrillar centers of ring-shaped nucleoli and decreased the number of cells which contained a large number of such structures at fibrillar centers of their ring shaped nucleoli. There was no substantial difference in the visualization and distribution of SSPs after fixation with phosphate-buffered glutaraldehyde or formaldehyde in distilled water and postfixation in ethanol or methanol-glacial acetic acid mixture.