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Summary: With anaemia the erythroid marrow maturation pattern of the rat is altered so that macroreticulocytes containing increased amounts of haemoglobin, water, ribosomes and ribonucleic acid are released into circulation. This was shown to be accompanied by a reduction in the marrow iron transit time, a measurement of the maturation time of marrow reticulocytes, and possibly by the occurrence of skipped mitoses during maturation. Despite the premature release, increased volume and haemoglobin content of these macroreticulocytes, they matured normally without apparent splenic sequestration or significant cell death in the first 10 days. At the same time they underwent shrinkage by loss of both cell water and some haemoglobin. This appeared to be an intravascular phenomenon where macrocytes were remodelled, possibly by cell fragmentation, until a population with near normal indices was obtained.

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