Morphological variants of neutrophilic granulocytes in blood of practically normal humans

Verification of presumed inertness of blood neutrophil granulocytes revealed their morphological heterogeneity in practically healthy donors. At light microscopic level it was expressed as a varying degree of cell cytoplasm granularity--58% of the cells were highly granular, 30% contained moderate amount of granules and 12% were completely devoid of granules. According to the ultrastructural analysis, neutrophils were subdivided into four groups: intact cells (60%), cells with slight (26%), moderate (12%) and severe (2%) changes. The criteria for this classification included changes in neutrophil shape and ultrastructure during its activation: formation of pseudo- and lobopodia, spatial redistribution of organelles, degranulation etc. Presence of neutrophils with the signs of activation in the circulation suggests that the neutrophil system normally is not inert, but is in a state of so-called working tone, thus providing high antibacterial resistance of the macroorganism exposed to natural bacterial environment.