Cell morphology refers to the physical characteristics and observable traits of cells. It's a subfield of cytology, which is the study of cells in general.

This book is an atlas of morphological characteristics of normal and pathological cells in blood and bone marrow. Major emphasis is placed on the anatomical characteristics of individual cells in the various stages of their maturation. See

This reading note only focuses on the atlas’ information on normal cells and do not encompass the part of the book that talks about pathological cells.

This reading note is also focused mainly on:

My goal is to be able to look at a

So for each of the specific cell types, I created this exercise for myself to look at the BMA slides from the DeepHeme demo, and find examples and take screenshots of examples.

See hyperlinks.

Self-renewal refers to the process by which a cell divides to produce two cells, at least one of which maintains the undifferentiated state of the parent cell. This process allows a population of cells to maintain its number over time.

This term is often used in the context of stem cells. A key property of stem cells is their ability to self-renew, or produce copies of themselves, while maintaining their undifferentiated state. This is what allows stem cells to contribute to the development, growth, repair, and maintenance of tissues throughout the lifetime of an organism.

For example, in the bone marrow, hematopoietic stem cells divide to produce more stem cells (self-renewal) as well as progenitor cells that will differentiate into the various types of blood cells (differentiation). This balance between self-renewal and differentiation is crucial for maintaining healthy tissue function.

When the balance is disrupted, it can lead to problems. If the stem cells differentiate too much without sufficient self-renewal, the tissue might not be able to replace cells that are lost due to wear and tear or injury. On the other hand, if self-renewal occurs too much without enough differentiation, it can result in an overgrowth of undifferentiated cells, which is a characteristic of cancer.

Progenitor cells are stem cells that are not fully

A "precursor cell compartment" typically refers to the collection or population of cells that are destined to become a particular cell type. These cells have already been committed to a specific lineage or fate (e.g., a neural precursor cell is already committed to the neural lineage) but have not yet undergone the final steps of differentiation to reach their mature state.

Just look at this nice picture!

Cellular commitment, also often referred to as lineage commitment, is a term used in developmental biology to describe the point in the differentiation process at which a cell becomes destined to develop into a specific cell type or tissue.

"Ameboid" or "amoeboid" is a term that describes a specific type of movement or behaviour that some cells and organisms exhibit. The word comes from the name "amoeba," which is a type of single-celled organism that moves in this way.

So, what does ameboid movement look like? Well, imagine a blob of jelly that can stretch and squish itself to move around. This is essentially how amoeboid movement works. The cell or organism extends part of its body to form something like an arm, called a pseudopod ("false foot"), then flows into this extension to move forward. This is an effective way for these organisms or cells to move around in their environments, especially when the terrain is irregular.

In summary, cytokines, growth factors, and receptor systems are all involved in cell communication. Cytokines and growth factors are proteins that send signals, while receptor systems receive these signals and trigger responses inside the cell. They all play crucial roles in maintaining the body's health and responding to diseases or injuries.

This is the general picture for branches of

In our case, to avoid confusion, myelopoiesis will refer to

The Wright stain is a type of stain that's used in the laboratory to help visualize and differentiate cells, especially blood cells, under a microscope. Named after James Homer Wright, who developed the technique in the early 1900s, the Wright stain is particularly useful for examining blood smears and bone marrow samples.

When cells are stained with the Wright stain, different types of cells take up the stain differently and show different colors. This allows scientists or doctors to distinguish between different types of blood cells, such as red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. The stain can also highlight structures within the cells, such as the cell nucleus or any granules in the cell's cytoplasm.

Specifically, the stain typically colors the cell nuclei purple-blue and the cytoplasm pink-orange, while granules in the cytoplasm of certain white blood cells can show up as dark purple spots.

By using the Wright stain, doctors and scientists can identify abnormalities in the cells, such as changes in size, shape, or color, which could indicate diseases like anemia, leukemia, or other blood disorders. This makes it a very important tool in diagnostic medicine, particularly in hematology, the study of blood.

See hyperlinks.

This is a description of

Yes, erythropoiesis can be considered a subset of myelopoiesis (in the broad sense).

Erythropoiesis refers specifically to the process of red blood cell (erythrocyte) production, while

However, we will use

This is because the process of erythropoiesis and myelopoiesis (narrow-sense) are regulated by different growth factors and conditions in the body, even though both occur in the bone marrow, and a clear distinction and separate consideration is useful.

First, the hematopoietic stem cell turns into a cell called a myeloid progenitor. This is a more specialized cell that can become several different types of cells, including a type of white blood cell called a monocyte.

The monocytes then leave the bone marrow and enter our bloodstream. They circulate in the blood for about one to three days. Then they move into different tissues throughout the body, like our skin, lungs, and brain.

Once they're in the tissues, the monocytes mature into macrophages. Each tissue has a slightly different type of macrophage, but they all have the same main job: to gobble up harmful things and help keep our bodies healthy.

The macrophages are basically garbage collectors. For example, the spin-off nuclei that come out when

See the respective hyperlinks.

See a similar earlier question in erythropoiesis.

Lymphopoiesis and myelopoiesis are two processes that our bodies use to create different types of white blood cells, which are crucial players in our immune system.

So in simple terms, both lymphopoiesis and myelopoiesis are processes that create different types of white blood cells. Lymphopoiesis results in lymphocytes, which are key players in the adaptive immune system, while myelopoiesis results in other types of white blood cells, like neutrophils and monocytes, which are involved in the innate immune system. Both processes are critical to maintain a healthy and functioning immune system.