Nuclear Arylsulphatase Activity in Leukaemia and Some Other Haematological Disorders

Abstract

Nuclear arylsulphatase activity was estimated in 82 cases of leukaemia and in 27 cases of bone marrow plasmocytosis. Smears from patients with other haematological disorders and from normal individuals were also studied. The nuclear staining reaction was always positive in lymphocytic cells including lymphoblasts, whereas it was negative in about one third of the cases of acute myeloblastic leukaemia. Promyelocytes and all more mature granulocytes always showed a negative staining reaction. As erythroblasts were invariably positive, this method cannot be used in the differentiation of megaloblasts in folic acid or vitamin‐B12 deficiency from the megaloblastoid erythroblasts in the Di Guglielmo syndrome. It is also without value in the differentiation between normal and neoplastic plasma cells. Storage in a desiccator for 4–8 weeks does not seem to exert any appreciable influence on the staining reaction.