The many faces of reactive plasma cells - all found within the same chronic skin infection in a dog!
Plasma cells are activated B lymphocytes and their purpose is to secrete immunoglobulin. When they become reactive, or stimulated, they can be binucleated, multinucleated, and have a variety of morphological changes occur including the formation of Russell bodies. Russell bodies are round to globular intracellular aggregates of immunoglobulin; their formation is due to an imbalance between the rates of synthesis, folding, secretion, and degradation of immunoglobulins.
While most Russell bodies are rounded, one (of many) phenotype of Russell bodies can present as crystalline bodies. Immunoglobulin crystals are very uncommon to see in plasma cell proliferations, and very few reports have been authored on them in veterinary medicine. I feel very lucky to have found three different types of crystalline bodies as you can hopefully appreciate in the above pictures!
me explaining to my grandma that the turkey tail and golden oyster mushrooms and birds nest fungi growing on her huge backyard tree stump are simply eating the dead wood to return it to the soil and they're cute and colorful and add to the whimsy of her landscaping and are not causing the weeds in other places of the yard or harming her little white dog
What has no heart and no brain? No, it’s not your ex… it’s the barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma pulmo). Also known as the dustbin-lid jellyfish (yes, really), this species can reach an impressive 35 in (90 cm) in diameter and can weigh up to 77 lbs (35 kg)! Like other jellies, this critter relies on its nervous system to function.
Photo: tato grasso, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
it would be so cool if you did e. coli in a jason mask (my friend brought this up. doesn’t have to be e. coli tho :P)
or if you did a microbe with the markiplier pink mustache :DDDDD
I've definitely done E. coli before, but I'll absolutely take the hat suggestions! I'm always in need of those.
Babesia
mhawkins
Gastric cancer patient with bone marrow metastasis #oncology #cancer #laboratory #diagnostics #oncologia #microscopy
Today’s Friend from Borneo is the Bornean Tree-hole Frog (Metaphrynella sundana)! He is singing his Beautiful Song from his hole in the middle of a tree! (Bonus Crested Toad (Ingerophrynus divergens)!)
pssssst...
guess what.
you deserve to be happy.
pass it on.
Life has been busy and stressful and very very strange but at least pathology can always be depended on - please enjoy this weird and invasive mammary carcinoma from a dog.
Science nerd 🧪 | History buff 📜 | Dog & cat person 🐾always curious!
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