• Applied Microscopy
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.43-56
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• 1999

The relationship between intravascular erythroblasts and Kupffer cells in the human fetal liver from 11 to 20 week gestation was studied ultrastructurally. The walls of the developing sinusoids consisted of two cell types devoid of basal lamina, the nonfenestrasted endothelial cells and Kupffer cells. Kupffer cells examined were easily identified by their content of phagosmes and their morphological features, and partially proliferated by mitotic division which was different way of proliferation from adult. Some extruded nuclei of acidophilic erythroblasts were trapped within Kupffer cells which exhibited various stages of intracellular digestion of the nuclei. During high activity of human fetal hepatic erythropoiesis, Kupffer cells were found in association with developing erythrob-lasts, which was similar with erythroblastic islands. The developing erythroblasts were partially surrounded by multilaminated membrane system of the Kupffer cell consisting erythroblastic island, or in contact with Kupffer cell via cytoptasmic processes in the sinu-soidal lumen. The presence of these islands was confirmed by transmission and scanning electron microscopic study. The results demonstrate that Kupffer cells in fetal heaptic erythropoiesis phagocytized expelled nuclei and contributed to erythropoiesis mechanically and physiologically by the hypertrophy and the formation of erythroblastic islands.