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Erythropoiesis
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Hematopoiesis is the manufacture of blood cells. Erythropoiesis is the branch of that factory devoted to erythrocytes, which is the technical name for red blood cells. It all begins in the hematopoietic stem cells, which in adults live in the bone marrow, the soft tissue inside the bones.
The one giving the order is not the bone, it is the kidney. Cells in the renal cortex called peritubular cells produce erythropoietin, a glycoprotein hormone, and release it when the partial pressure of oxygen falls, that is, when too little oxygen is arriving. The kidney measures the oxygen reaching it and calls for red blood cells when it runs short.
The cell takes up to five days to finish forming. It starts as a proerythroblast, large and with a nucleus, and at each step it becomes smaller while the nucleus condenses. In the end, the nucleus is expelled completely, and what is left is called a reticulocyte.
In brief
Erythropoiesis is the branch of hematopoiesis that produces erythrocytes, starting from the hematopoietic stem cells of the bone marrow.
It is driven by erythropoietin, a glycoprotein hormone from peritubular cells in the renal cortex, which stimulates red blood cell production when the partial pressure of oxygen falls.
The kidney measures the oxygen reaching it and calls for red blood cells when it runs short.
Maturation runs from proerythroblast to reticulocyte in up to five days: the cell shrinks, the nucleus condenses, and finally it is expelled.
Sources (2)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingHistology, Hematopoiesis, StatPearlsPublished
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingErythropoietin Stimulating Agents, StatPearlsPublished
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