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Observations on the Ultrastructure of Erythropoietic Cells and Reticulum Cells in the Bone Marrow of Patients with Homozygous β‐Thalassaemia
Author(s) -
Wickramasinghe S. N.,
Bush Valerie
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
british journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.907
H-Index - 186
eISSN - 1365-2141
pISSN - 0007-1048
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2141.1975.tb01853.x
Subject(s) - ultrastructure , bone marrow , endoplasmic reticulum , pathology , erythropoiesis , thalassemia , reticulum , bone marrow diseases , ineffective erythropoiesis , medicine , biology , anemia , microbiology and biotechnology
S ummary . An electron microscopic study of marrow fragments from patients with homozygous β‐thalassaemia has shown that 3% of early polychromatic erythroblast profiles and 20% of late polychromatic erythroblast profiles contain intracytoplasmic α‐chain precipitates. Various nuclear abnormalities were found including the loss of parts of the nuclear membrane and the presence of intranuclear α‐chain precipitates, and these abnormalities were virtually confined to the non‐dividing, late polychromatic erythroblasts. As most profiles of the proliferating early polychromatic erythroblasts did not contain intracytoplasmic or intranuclear α‐chain precipitates, it is suggested that the arrest of many of these cells in the G 1 phase of the cell cycle may be related to the presence of an excess of free α‐chains rather than to the presence of α‐chain precipitates within them. The cytoplasm of the bone marrow reticulum cells contained early and late polychromatic erythroblasts at various stages of degradation, providing direct evidence of ineffective erythropoiesis.