THE MICROVASCULATURE OF THE HUMAN BONE-MARROW CORRELATED WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF HEMATOPOIETIC-CELLS - A COMPUTER-ASSISTED 3-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION STUDY

Surgical specimens of ordinary bone marrow from eight patients were submitted to computer-assisted three-dimensional reconstruction from resin-embedded, semi-thin serial sections. This was undertaken with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of hematopoietic microenvironment by establishing the basic architecture of the bone marrow, particularly the microvasculature and its relation to the hematopoietic cell series. The basic vascular structure was found to consist of mutually intertwining sinuses and hematopoietic cords (or compartments), the latter with an arteriole running along the axis. This allowed to define the unitary structure of the bone marrow as a hematopoietic cord with a central arteriole and surrounded by sinuses. Here granulopoietic cells were distributed mostly along the wall of the central arteriole. Erythropoietic cells, located mainly around the sinus wall, proved to be forming a continuous network of cord instead of separate "islands" as usually assumed, justifying a designation of "erythroblastic cords". Megakaryocytes were positioned in close vicinity to the sinus wall. These findings appear not only to be helpful in analyzing factors involved in the in vivo hematopoiesis of man, but also to visualize the importance of structural studies of bone marrow.