Morphologic observations of human T and B lymphocytes by scanning electron microscopy

T cell concerned with cell mediated immunity and B cell concerned with humoral antibody are classified by scanning electron microscopy of the surface structure of lymphocytes using E binding lymphocytes and EAC (sensitized sheep erythrocytes treated with complement) binding lymphocytes. For the purpose to elucidate morphological differences between T cell and B cell the scanning electron microscope observations were carried out with the blast forming lymphocytes incubated in the presence of PHA. As a result it has been demonstrated that T cells have short microvilli on the cell surface, but the reason for the difference in the number of the microvilli is unclarified. Even T cells have sometimes long microvilli in the younger stage, they are longer and more slender than those of untreated peripheral B cells.