Production of Sézary-like cells from normal human lymphocytes.

The present study was designed to determine if lymphocytes from healthy humans could be stimulated to assume the morphologic appearance of Sézary-like cells. Lymphocyte-rich populations of cells were incubated for 72 hours with pokeweed mitogen and phytohemagglutinin, both potent cellular mitogens. With light microscopy, differential cell counts performed on 0.5mu epoxy resin-embedded sections showed that 5% to 11% of the lymphocytes had cerebriform nuclei, and were designated as Sézary-like cells. The morphological results were confirmed by electron microscopy. Production of Sézary-like cells from stimulated, normal, human lymphocytes suggests that cells with cerebriform nuclei may represent reactive lymphocytes, and may explain their presence in benign inflammatory dermatoses.