Turk Cells

TURK CELLS (Turk), first described by Turk in the blood during pneumonia as 'bone marrow irritation cells' (see separate plate, figs. 3-5); they were characterized by the author as cellular elements of various sizes, rich in cytoplasm that intensely stains with methylene blue, with an eccentrically located nucleus. Further observations showed that these cells are morphologically extremely similar to tissue, so-called plasma cells (see); the latter occur in small numbers in normal bone marrow and in the connective tissue of various organs and tissues. The characteristic ultramarine staining of the cytoplasm of these cells when methylene blue is used and bright red when methyl-green-pyronin according to Unna-Pappenheim is obtained apparently due to pathological compaction of the cell spongioplasm corresponding to a special functional state of these cells. Pathological basophilia of the cytoplasm is often difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to differentiate from the normal basophilia of the cytoplasm of young, immature cells. Basophilic erythroblasts can extremely resemble plasma cells, and occasionally myeloblasts with intensely blue cytoplasm are also encountered.