An electron microscopic study of typical lymphocytes and atypical cells of peripheral blood in patients with schizophrenia
: An electron microscopic analysis of a lymphocyte population from peripheral blood of 120 patients with schizophrenia (60 patients with acute and 60 with chronic form) and 31 healthy people has been conducted. The ultrastructure and percentage of 6 morphofunctional cell types are described. A statistical analysis of the data revealed that patients with chronic schizophrenia had the substantially increased content of activated lymphocytes, in particular lymphoblasts, while patients with acute schizophrenia had the ameliorated content of activated lymphocytes along with the increased number of lymphoblasts. The high content of lymphoblasts is believed to be a characteristic feature of patients with schizophrenia (this type of cells belongs to so-called atypical lymphocytes described earlier). The atypical cells include also destructive lymphocytes, phagocyting monocytes and phagocyting neutrophiles. These atypical cells are observed more often in patients with acute schizophrenia. It has been suggested that the presence of an increased number of lymphoblasts in the blood of schizophrenic patients indicates the constant production of antigens and the presence of phagocyting cells reflects the processes of antigen neutralization.