Normal human granulopoiesis revisited. II. Bone marrow data.

In a previous paper on normal human granulopoiesis, advantages and pitfalls of experimental techniques previously devised to study the proliferation and maturation kinetics of the neutrophil granulocyte lineage have been discussed in details. Reference data concerning blood granulocyte half-life in the circulation, blood granulocyte pool size and turnover rate have been proposed. In this second paper, human bone marrow neutrophil data are reviewed and discussed, in regard to cellularity, mitotic activities, cell kinetic parameters in the mitotic pool and transit time through the non mitotic pool, differential cell counts and production. Reference data arise from this review, although some problems remain concerning bone marrow differential cell counts. Finally a complete and coherent kinetic description of granulopoiesis is given and the amount of ineffective bone marrow production is approximately calculated.