Reading Blood under a microscope

January 28, 2012 at 6:00 pm #16008

Participant

Hello. I have just purchased a small basic microscope, and have been busy placing things under it – and it is fascinating.

One of the things we placed under was a sample of blood. This has been the most fun thing to see, watching the cells float around etc.

However despite several hours of searching, we can’t seem to find anything that helps identify what we are seeing!

I have attached a photo showing 3 different structures, and I wonder if any of the clever people here can help identify what they are.

1) The smooth round thing I assume is a nice red blood cell.
2) What are the long snake like ones?
3) What are the ones with black dots on them?

Any help, or a link to a site where we can look this kind of thing up would be great!

Thanks

January 28, 2012 at 6:01 pm #109271

hamsternose

Participant

Maybe not an easy answer, but I also wondered why it isn’t red!

January 30, 2012 at 11:39 am #109294

JackBean

Participant

1) correct
2) just several red blood cells aggregated
3) probably some lymphocyte or something like that

January 31, 2012 at 6:50 am #109317

Sahanaah

Participant

1) may be red cells (I really don’t know well)
2)red cells lined together
3)Leucocytes(white blood cells) (dots may be the nucleus if it)
🙄

February 4, 2012 at 11:17 pm #109443

Darby

Participant

The dotty ones look like crenated RBCs – possibly formed as the water evaporated from the plasma…

February 9, 2012 at 7:20 am #109537

AstraSequi

Participant

1) Yes, red blood cells. 🙂
2) Stacks of red blood cells, as Jack said. They are called rouleaux, and naturally occur due to the affinity of RBCs for each other. The stacking helps them to travel more efficiently in capillaries.
3) Almost certainly a neutrophil; the dots are lobes of the nucleus. Neutrophils are the most common type of white blood cell.

Other things you might find:
– macrophages: similar to neutrophils but a bit larger, with a regular-shaped (non-lobed) nucleus
– lymphocytes (T cells or B cells): round cells with very large nuclei that take up most of the space in the cell
– platelets: very small things shaped like shards of glass, often found in clumps. I think I can see some in the picture.

You may also see eosinophils or basophils, but those are very, very rare. 🙂

January 24, 2018 at 5:08 pm #116336

MarcelPerez

Participant

It will be a good topic for the dissertation! Is anybody wrote something before about it for school or university?

April 25, 2018 at 7:44 am #116368

mientuklop

Participant

Hi there. I was diagnosed with CLL IN February. I believe I’m in ‘A’ stage which is good but I don’t have a clue about blood results. Could anyone enlighten me as to what a lymphcyte count of 67 indicates? I assume this is ok as far as CLL goes?
Any help gratefully accepted!

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