Reconstituted erythroblastic islands. Bright field (A) and immunofluorescent standard (B) and confocal (C) micrographs of typical erythroblastic islands formed from single cell suspensions of MacGreen mouse bone marrow. Immunofluorescent micrographs of islands show cells stained for erythroid-specific marker GPA (Ter119; red), macrophage marker M-CSF receptor GFP transgene expression (green), and DNA (Hoechst 33342; blue). In the confocal image some of the cells appear blurred because they are not in the plane of focus. However, macrophage staining is apparent in various regions of the island. Reticulocytes, arrowheads; macrophage, arrows; bars represent 10 μm. (D) Histogram shows number of erythroblastic islands formed from 1 × 105 single cells; n = 10. Results are shown as mean ± SD.
