Non-nucleated erythrocytes in a teleostean fish Maurolicus Mülleri (Gmelin)

Abstract

The paper deals with the erythrocytes of the teleostean fish, Maurolicus mülleri (Gmelin). Three remarkable features in their morphology are pointed out: 1. They have no nuclei. Whether nucleated erythrocytes exist in the blood could not be stated with certainty. Nucleated cells make up less than 1 % of the blood corpuscles and do not show the staining properties of mature erythrocytes. 2. They are exceptionally small, 4-6 × 2-3 μ. So small erythrocytes are found only in a few mammals. 3. They do not seem to be flattened. It is suggested that this is correlated with their small size. It is pointed out, that prevalence of non-nucleated erythrocytes in the blood must be very rare in teleostean fishes, since a great number of species have been investigated and were found to have nucleated erythrocytes. The only example of a non-mammalian vertebrate with predominantly non-nucleated erythrocytes in the blood was previously the urodelan genus Batrachoseps. In some respects the blood of Maurolicus is more mammal-like than that of Batrachoseps. © 1956 Springer-Verlag.