Journal article

Publication year: 1990

Pages: 21-34

Journal: Journal of Morphology

Volume number: 203

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 0362-2525

eISSN: 1097-4687

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.1052030104

Publisher: Wiley

Abstract: 
During postnatal development of the pigeon, a large portion of the skeleton becomes pneumatized, displacing the hemopoietic bone marrow. The consequences of pneumatization on distribution and quantity of bone marrow as well as the availability of other sites for hemopoiesis have been investigated. Hemopoietic marrow of differently aged pigeons divided into five groups from 1 week posthatching (p.h.) up to 6 months p.h. was labeled with Fe-59 and examined by serial whole-body sections. Autoradiography and morphometry as well as scintillation counts of single bones and organs were also carried out. No sign of a reactivation of embryonic sites of erythropoiesis was found. Bone marrow weight and its proportion of whole-body weight increased during the first 4 weeks p.h. from 0.54% to 2.44% and decreased in the following months to about 1.0%. the developing bone marrow showed a progressive distribution during the first months of life, eventually being distributed proportionally over the entire skeleton, except for the skull. At the age of 6 months p.h. bone marrow had been displaced, its volume decreasing in correlation to increasing pneumaticity and conversion to fatty marrow. This generates the characteristic pattern of bone marrow distribution in adult pigeons, which shows hemopoietic bone marrow in ulna, radius, femur, tibiotarsus, scapula, furcula, and the caudal vertebrae.

Harvard Citation style: SCHEPELMANN, K. (1990) ERYTHROPOIETIC BONE-MARROW IN THE PIGEON - DEVELOPMENT OF ITS DISTRIBUTION AND VOLUME DURING GROWTH AND PNEUMATIZATION OF BONES, Journal of Morphology, 203(1), pp. 21-34. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.1052030104

APA Citation style: SCHEPELMANN, K. (1990). ERYTHROPOIETIC BONE-MARROW IN THE PIGEON - DEVELOPMENT OF ITS DISTRIBUTION AND VOLUME DURING GROWTH AND PNEUMATIZATION OF BONES. Journal of Morphology. 203(1), 21-34. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.1052030104