Cytoenzymatical differentiation of normal and neoplastic plasma cells

Plasma Cell Acid Phosphatase as an Adjunct in the Differential Diagnosis of Monoclonal Immunoglobulinemias

“…In conclusion, we consider the plasma cell acid phosphatase a simple, rapid and reliable test which may be of help in the differential diagnosis of monoclonal gammapathies. Very recently, Miliani et al [13] observed lower scores of adenosine triphos phatase (ATPase) in MM as compared with NMMI (30 and 14 cases, respectively), as previously described by Schubert and Rin neberg [18] and later by Szmigielski et al [20], Since the plasma cell acid phosphatase (Löfflers method) was performed by Mili ani et al [13] in 10 cases only, no compari sons can be made with our work. On the other hand, nonspecific esterase has showed unclear results when applied to monoclonal gammapathies [10,13,17,19].…”

“…Many authors have recently attempted to establish discriminant tests which might be useful in the early differentiation between benign and malignant monoclonal immunoglobulinemias [2,9,14,15,21], and such efforts have also included cytochemical methods [11,17,18,20]. In 1977, Cassuto et al [3] reported that MM patients dis played a much higher activity of plasma cell acid phosphatase than the NMMI group.…”

5′-nucleotidase activity in myeloma cells

“…The high 5'-N activity in myeloma cells parallels the high fJ-glucuronidase and non-specific esterase (Szmigielski et al 1965, Quaglino et al 1967, Sundstrom & Nilsson 1977 and high acid phosphatase activity (Hayhoe & Neuman 1976, Cassuto et al 1977, Invernizzi et al 1979. Since multiple myeloma is characterized, in cytokinetic studies, by large cell losses (Pileri, Boccadoro & Conte 1979), it seems possible that the increase of lysosomal enzymes and of 5'-N in myeloma cells may be a consequence of cell death and auto-phagocytosis (Hirschhorn & Weissmann 1967).…”