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Bone marrow nonneoplastic

Normal

Plasma cells

Author: Dragos C. Luca, M.D.

Last author update: 1 September 2012

Last staff update: 20 November 2024 (update in progress)

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PubMed Search: Bone marrow plasma cells [title]

Table of Contents

Cite this page: Luca DC. Plasma cells. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/bonemarrowplasmacells.html. Accessed December 23rd, 2024.

Definition / general

Usually less than 1% of marrow cells; rare in infants
Often perivascular and in particle crush specimens
Indeterminate lifespan ranging from days to months
Produces and secretes antibodies
Plasmablast: precursor to plasma cell, produces more antibodies than B cells but less than mature plasma cells
Plasma cells: the last stage of B cell maturation, express CD38 but lose CD19
Differentiation of mature B cells into plasma cells is dependent upon the transcription factors Blimp1 / PRDM1 and IRF4
Unlike their precursors, plasma cells cannot act as antigen presenting cells because they no longer display MHC II; they do not take up antigen because they no longer display significant quantities of immunoglobulin on the cell surface
Plasma cells they cannot switch antibody classes and can only produce a single kind of antibody in a single class of immunoglobulin

Microscopic (histologic) description

Ovoid cells with abundant deep blue cytoplasm and perinuclear hof, eccentric nucleus with coarse chromatin and clock face (cartwheel) pattern
May have occasional binucleated cells; no nucleoli

Microscopic (histologic) images

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