HematologyOutlines - Atlas
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
  • Polychromatophilic normoblasts
  • Osteoblast
  • Mature lymphocyte
  • Reactive lymphocyte
› 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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RBC
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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