Reticulocyte

immature erythrocytes whose organelles have not yet been reduced and can be visualised by, for instance, Wright’s stain

Description
In healthy individuals, reticulocytes are cells recently released from the bone marrow, representing approximately 1% of blood cells and undergoing subsequent differentiation to mature erythrocytes.

Relevance to Hemoglobinopathies
In disorders of erythrocyte development, immature stages of development accumulate above physiologically normal levels and can serve as diagnostic markers of disease. In thalassemia, for instance, reticulocytes in peripheral blood are highly increased, so that disease state and success of therapies can be quantified by an assessment of reticulocyte numbers in patients and in experimental systems.