SPECTRALLY RESOLVED IMAGING OF CABOT RINGS AND HOWELL-JOLLY BODIES

The spectral characteristics of erythropoietic cellular inclusions sta ined by May-Grunwald Giemsa (MGG) were determined by spectrally resolv ed imaging. Multipixel spectra were obtained from Cabot rings and Howe ll-Jolly (HJ) bodies, displaying a range of wavelengths of transmitted light. The spectral characteristics of these inclusions were compared with those of isolated DNA, histones (type II) and arginine-rich hist ones (type VT), all stained by MGG, Results of single-cell spectroscop y show that the spectra of Cabot rings and HJ bodies share spectral ch aracteristics with the type II and type VI histones, However, no resem blance was found between Cabot rings and DNA spectra, The spectral ana lysis of heterochromatin displayed a spectral pattern with characteris tics of both DNA and histones, while the euchromatin showed a major co ntribution of the DNA component.