Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Hematopoiesis is the process of formation of new blood cells.1 During embryonic development,\nthe process starts in the yolk sac, in so called blood islands. As development of the\nembryo progresses, blood cell formation continues predominantly in the liver, and after\nbirth the bone marrow takes over the process of hematopoiesis.\nNew blood cells continuously need to be generated throughout life, as the majority of mature\nblood cells have a limited life-span. In a healthy adult, this results in the estimated production\nof approximately 1010 new blood cells per hour.1 All different types of mature blood\ncells originate from a pool of self-renewing hematopoietic stem cells (HSC’s) that resides\nin the bone marrow. In a strictly regulated process, the multipotent HSC’s can differentiate\ninto either a common myeloid or common lymphoid progenitor cells (Figure 1). While the\nlymphoid progenitor cells will differentiate and mature into either B-lymphocytes, T-lymphocytes,\nor natural killer cells, the myeloid progenitor cells will give rise to the other white\nblood cells (leukocytes) such as granulocytes (i.e. neutrophils, basophils and eosinophils),\nmonocytes/macrophages and mast cells, but also to the red blood cells (erythrocytes) and\nthe platelets (thrombocytes).
Author: Iris H.I.M. Hollink
Language: English
Subfield: Hematology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2147200956