Neurologic Disorders Associated With Increased DNA Synthesis in Peripheral Blood

THE PERIPHERAL blood of normal persons contains small numbers of deoxyribonucleic acid synthesizing mononuclear cells.¹,²Increased numbers of these cells have been reported in the blood of patients with disorders in which involvement of lymphoid tissue is a prominent feature, notably in certain drug hypersensitivity states, viral infections, immunoglobulin producing neoplasms, and certain "autoimmune" diseases.²⁻⁷Many of the mononuclear cells synthesizing DNA are large, with an intensely basophilic cytoplasm and a primitive nucleus.⁵⁻⁸They resemble the "blast-like" cells induced in cultures of sensitized lymphocytes exposed to a specific antigen and, also, the proliferating "immunoblast" described by Dameshek in the regional nodes of animals undergoing host-graft rejection.⁵,⁸⁻¹¹We have shown large numbers of Autoradiograph of large basophilic mononuclear cell from peripheral blood. Grains represent incorporation of thymidine3H into DNA. morphologically similar cells synthesizing DNA, rapidly proliferating, and producing antibodies in the lymph nodes, spleen, and blood