Is there a difference between T- and B-lymphocyte morphology?

• Published in: Journal of Biomedical Optics Vol. 14; no. 6; pp. 064036 - 0640312
• Main Authors: Strokotov, Dmitry I, Yurkin, Maxim A, Gilev, Konstantin V, van Bockstaele, Dirk R, Hoekstra, Alfons G, Rubtsov, Nikolay B, Maltsev, Valeri P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.11.2009
• Subjects: Algorithms; B-cells; B-Lymphocytes - cytology; Bayes Theorem; Cell Nucleus; Cell Shape; Cell Size; differential cross section; discrete dipole approximation; Flow Cytometry; global optimization; human white blood cells; Humans; inverse light-scattering problem; Light; light scattering; lymphocyte; lymphocyte morphology; Microscopy, Confocal; Models, Biological; Refractometry; scanning flow cytometry; Scattering, Radiation; T-cells; T-Lymphocytes - cytology
• ISSN: 1083-3668; 1560-2281
• DOI: 10.1117/1.3275471

We characterize T- and B-lymphocytes from several donors, determining cell diameter, ratio of nucleus to cell diameter, and refractive index of the nucleus and cytoplasm for each individual cell. We measure light-scattering profiles with a scanning flow cytometer and invert the signals using a coated sphere as an optical model of the cell and by relying on a global optimization technique. The main difference in morphology of T- and B-lymphocytes is found to be the larger mean diameters of the latter. However, the difference is smaller than the natural biological variability of a single cell. We propose nuclear inhomogeneity as a possible reason for the deviation of measured light-scattering profiles from real lymphocytes from those obtained from the coated sphere model.