How Red Blood Cells Get So Big -- And the Bad Things That Happen When They Don't, Yale University Study
Yale researchers have discovered how megakaryocytes -- giant blood cells that produce wound-healing platelets -- manage to grow 10 to 15 times larger than other blood cells. The findings, to be published March 13 in the journal Developmental Cell, also hint at how a malfunction in this process may cause a form of leukemia.