Cell interactions between hematopoietic and stromal cells in the embryonic chick bone marrow

Light microscopic, scanning electron microscopic, and transmission electron microscopic studies of the early developmental stages of chick embryonic bone marrow disclose characteristic associations of the first hematopoietic cells with stromal cells. The first hematopoietic cells, large basophilic cells that we have termed presumptive stem cells, segregate into erythropoietic and granulopoietic regions. Intravascular erythropoietic cells associate with sinusoidal endothelial cells, while granulopoietic cells associate with extravascular reticular cells. Extensive, intimate contacts between erythroid and endothelial cells are maintained, in part, by marginal arrays of microtubules, which promote a flattening of the adherent erythroid cell surface. In addition, cell surface components of opposing cells, visualized by ruthenium red staining, appear to merge and possibly to interact. Granulopoietic cells establish intimate but less extensive associations with reticular cells through cell-surface interactions. Stationary granuloid cells appear to be held in place by small, thin processes emanating from the sheet-like reticular cells. Granuloid cells are capable of moving within the extravascular region, using reticular cell surfaces as a substrate. Intimate associations also occur among granulopoietic cells, the significance of which is unclear. Thus, sinusoidal endothelial cells and reticular cells comprise the critical non-hematopoietic or stromal elements of avian bone marrow, where they have a putative role in segregating presumptive stem cells into erythrocyteic and granulocytic compartments. They serve as an architectual, and possibly regulatory, framework on which hematopoiesis occurs.