Primary Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissue ›› Bone Marrow ›› Normal

Plasma Cell*


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› Microscopic Features:

• 2-3x larger than a mature RBC
• Round eccentricly placed nucleus with coarse chromatin (Nucleus may show a clock-faced chromatin pattern)
• Abundant basophilic (blue) cytoplasm with prominent perinuclear hof (clearing)
• Nucleoli are absent

› Normal % blood-PB, marrow-BM, lymphoid tissue-LN:

• PB: None
• BM: Scattered
• LN: Scattered

› May Resemble:

• Plasmablast [Compare]
• Polychromatophilic normoblasts [Compare]
• Osteoblast
• Mature lymphocyte [Compare]
• Reactive lymphocyte [Compare]

› Differential Diagnoses:

Increased in: Chronic infection Malignancies (e.g. plasma cell myeloma, lymphoma, etc.) Autoimmune disorder Drug reaction

› Classic Immunophenotype:

• CD138+
• CD38 bright+
• CD19+
• CD20-
• CD56-
• Mixture of Cytoplasmic kappa and lambda light chains

› Cartoon Image:


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› Misc:

• Normally seen in bone marrow and lymphoid tissue. It is not seen in normal peripheral blood. The plasma cells in a normal bone marrow are polytypic (not clonal) and do not form sheets or clusters. Polytypic means a mixture of kappa and lambda light chains