Abstract
The present nuclear and cell body diameter measurements demonstrated size differences of the approximate cell space estimate occupied by the cell nucleus during the cell differentiation in lymphocytic, granulocytic and erythroid cell lineages. These lineages were used as convenient models because all differentiation steps were easily identified and accessible in diagnostic peripheral blood or bone marrow smears of blood donors (BDs), patients suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and refractory anemia (RA) of the myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). The cell space occupied by the nucleus was constant and did not change during the cell differentiation in the lymphocytic cell lineages of BDs and CLL patients despite the decreased cell size. In contrary, the cell space occupied by the nucleus markedly decreased in differentiating cells of granulocytic and erythroid lineages of patients suffering from CML. In the erythroid cell lineage in patients with RA of MDS the small reduction of the cell space occupied by the nucleus during the differentiation was not significant. The measurements also indicated that in progenitor cells of all studied cell lineages nuclei occupied more than 70 % of the cell space. Thus, the nucleus-cytoplasmic morphological and functional equilibrium appeared to be characteristic for each differentiation step and each specific cell lineage.