Q: What controls the rate red blood cells are created?
Answer: This question was the last question that stumped me during Term 1 session. I am sure that there will be many more excellent questions that stump me as Biology students push their knowledge to new limits!
According to Wikipedia, ...
According to Wikipedia, ...
Erythropoiesis (from Greek 'erythro' meaning "red" and 'poiesis' meaning "to make") is the process which produces red blood cells (erythrocytes). It is stimulated by decreased O2 in circulation, which is detected by the kidneys, which then secrete the hormone erythropoietin.[2]This hormone stimulates proliferation and differentiation of red cell precursors, which activates increased erythropoiesis in the hemopoietic tissues, ultimately producing red blood cells.[2]
In the process of red blood carpasel maturation, a cell undergoes a series of differentiations. The following stages of development all occur within the bone marrow:The cell is released from the bone marrow after Stage 7, and so in newly circulating red blood cells there are about 1% reticulocytes. After one to two days, these ultimately become "erythrocytes" or mature red blood cells.
- A Hemocytoblast, a multipotent hematopoietic stem cell, becomes
- a common myeloid progenitor or a multipotent stem cell, and then
- a unipotent stem cell, then
- a pronormoblast, also commonly called an proerythroblast or a rubriblast.
- This becomes a basophilic or early normoblast, also commonly called an erythroblast, then
- a polychromatophilic or intermediate normoblast, then
- an orthochromatic or late normoblast. At this stage the nucleus is expelled before the cell becomes
- a reticulocyte.