Definition and sites
Haemopoiesis is the process whereby blood cells are made (Fig. 1.1). The yolk sac, and later the liver and spleen, are important in fetal life, but after birth normal haemopoiesis is restricted to the bone marrow.
Infants have haemopoietic marrow in all bones, but in adults it is in the central skeleton and proximal ends of long bones (normal fat to haemopoietic tissue ratio of about 50 : 50) (Fig. 1.2). Expansion of haemopoiesis down the long bones may occur in bone marrow malignancy, e.g. in leukaemias, or when there is increased demand, e.g. chronic haemolytic anaemias. The liver and spleen can resume extramedullary haemopoiesis when there is marrow replacement, e.g. in myelofibrosis, or excessive demand, e.g. in severe haemolytic anaemias such as thalassaemia major.
Stem and progenitor cells
Haemopoiesis involves the complex physiological processes of proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis (programmed cell death). The bone marrow produces more than a million red cells per second in addition to similar numbers of white cells and platelets. This capacity can be increased in response to increased demand. A common primitive stem cell in the marrow has the capacity to self-replicate and to give rise to increasingly specialized or commited progenitor cells which, after many (13–16) cell divisions within the marrow, form the mature cells (red cells, granulocytes, monocytes, platelets and lymphocytes) of the peripheral blood (Fig. 1.1). The earliest recognizable red cell precursor is a pronormoblast and for granulocytes or monocytes, a myeloblast. An early lineage division is between lymphoid and myeloid cells. Stem and progenitor cells cannot be recognized morphologically; they resemble lymphocytes. Progenitor cells can be detected by in vitro assays in which they form colonies (e.g. colony-forming units for granulocytes and monocytes, CFU-GM, or for red cells, BFU-E and CFU-E). Stem and progenitor cells also circulate in the peripheral blood and can be harvested for use in stem cell transplantation.
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