Cytochemical pattern of alpha-mannosidase, alpha-fucosidase and neutral maltase in normal blood cells.

The activity of alpha-mannosidase, alpha-fucosidase and neutral maltase was studied by cytochemical techniques in blood cells of 20 controls and of 4 T and B lymphocyte concentrates. All granulocytes, monocytes and platelets showed fine or coarse reaction product deposition, whereas lymphocytes were negative or showed various positivity patterns. A significant difference of the positivity between T and B subpopulations was observed only for the fucosidase reaction. It is possible that the different positivity patterns of the lymphoid cells are related to different functional activities. Further studies will probably confirm the interest of the alpha-fucosidase reaction for the characterization of normal and pathological lymphoid cells.