CLL Without Monoclonal Serum Ig: The distribution of Ig classes and types
on lymphocytes from 49 CLL patients without serum monoclonal Ig is shown
in Table 1. In 71% of the cases the determinants of a presumably monoclonal
Ig were found at the cell surface. 1gM (or its monomeric subunit) was the
main Ig class detected on the leukemic lymphocytes and a single light chain
type was present (K in 14 cases and A in 6). The monoclonal S.Ig belonged
to the IgG class in 14 patients and to IgA in a single one. In one of these
patients,24 28% of blood lymphocytes contained rod-shaped crystalline cytoplasmic
inclusions which were brightly stained when the fixed cells were
studied with antisera to p. and A chains. The cytoplasm outside these crystals
was unstained. Most lymphocytes in this case, including all those which
contained the 1gM crystals, carried surface 1gM