THE PARADOX OF FERRATA AND THE FATE OF THE EXTRUDED RED-CELL NUCLEUS - 2 PROBLEMS CONCERNING ERYTHROPOIESIS IN THE HUMAN

A critical analysis of the present erythropoietic pathway reveals two problems which require resolving. One is the paradox of the basophilic erythroblast, and the other is the fate of the extruded red cell nucl eus. The problems can be overcome if erythropoiesis is looked at diffe rently, and the orthiochromatic normoblast considered to arise directl y from a denuded stem cell nucleus as has been previously suggested. T he orthochromatic normoblast extrudes its nucleus leaving behind a ret iculocyte. The extruded but functionally impaired nucleus of the ortho chromatic normoblast then gives rise to a polychromatic normoblast, a defective cell. The poorly made cytoplasm of the polychromatic normobl ast is shed and its nucleus, now non-functional, undergoes complete di ssolution into an aggregate of ultrafine particles. The theory has the advantage that the fate of the extruded red cell nucleus can be expla ined without having to introduce phagocytosis by macrophages and all t he immunological difficulties which this entails. The new pathway does away with the basophilic erythroblast as a haemoglobin-producing cell , and it is argued that the cell instead is a ferritin storage cell, a nd that erythropoiesis is the result of two separate but interdependen t pathways, a ferritin storage pathway and a haemoglobin production pa thway. Evidence is put forward to support the new pathways.