Purported difference between human T- and B-cell surface morphology is an artefact

Abstract

BECAUSE of the previous inability to detect differences in lymphocyte morphology by light or transmission electron microscopy¹, reports that B and T lymphocytes examined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) could be identified by their distinctive surface morphology have been met with interest^2–6. In these studies, most ‘villous’ cells were identified as B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes were described as ‘relatively smooth’. Some investigators have reported that T lymphocytes are more villous than B lymphocytes^7–9; others, however, have not detected a difference in surface form among human^10,11, or murine lymphocytes^12–14. The present study demonstrates that the collection and fixation technique used in those studies that initially described the dichotomy in lymphocyte SEM morphology^2–5, artefactually produces smooth cells.