Micrographs of erythroblastic islands. (A) Transmission electron micrograph of an erythroblastic island isolated from rat bone marrow. Note the extensive cell-cell contact. (B) Scanning electron micrograph of an isolated erythroblastic island. The inset shows an optical microscopic image of the same structure. Note the presence of an enucleating erythroblast () and a multilobulated reticulocyte (). (C) Confocal immunofluorescence image of an island reconstituted from freshly harvested mouse bone marrow cells stained with erythroid-specific marker (red), macrophage marker (green) and DNA probe (blue). Central macrophage is indicated by an arrow and a multilobulated reticulocyte by an arrowhead. (Panels A and B are courtesy of Michel Prenant of France, and panel C is reprinted from Lee et al²⁴  with permission from the American Society of Hematology.) Illustration by Paulette Dennis.