burst-forming unit–erythroid
The definitions used in this glossary of terminology either have been provided by the authors of the articles, or have been extracted wholly or in part, or paraphrased from the following sources: The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine, Charles B. Clayman, MD, Medical Editor, Random House, New York, 1989; Biotechnology from A to Z, 2d Edition, William Bains, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; A Dictionary of Genetics, 6th Edition, Robert C. King and William D. Stansfield, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 29th and 30th Editions, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 2000, 2003; Genes VII, Benjamin Lewin, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2000; The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Volumes I and II, Stacey L. Blachford, Ed., Thomson Learning, New York, New York, 2002; The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts, 1997; Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd Edition, Bruce Alberts, et al., Garland Publishing, 1994; The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged Edition, 1966; Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1991.
DEFINITION:
- burst-forming unit–erythroid
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An erythroid progenitor cell, known as erythrocyte burst-forming cell, or BFC-E. The BFC-E is distinct from the pluripotent stem cell in that it has a limited capacity to proliferate and gives rise to colonies that contain erythrocytes only, even under culture conditions that enable other progenitor cells to give rise to other classes of differentiated blood cells. It is distinct from the erythrocyte colony-forming cell (CFC-E) in that it is insensitive to erythropoietin, and its progeny must go through as many as 12 divisions before they become mature erythrocytes (for which erythropoietin must be present). The cell also differs in size from the CFC-E and can be separated from it by sedimentation. Thus the BFC-E is thought to be a progenitor cell committed to erythrocyte differentiation and an early ancestor of the CFC-E.
Used in 1 Term definition
Used in 1 Term definition