Granulocyte colony-stimulating factors

Abstract

Despite the first recognition of red cells in the blood by the Dutch scientist Jan Swammerdam around 1658 and the first description of the shape of erythrocytes by his acquaintance Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1695, the colorless cellular component of the blood remained unrecognized until 1843. At this time "white globules" were identified in the blood simultaneously by Gabriel Andral and William Addison (working in France and Scotland, respectively) and shown to be associated with disease. Addison, for instance, recognized pus cells as being blood cells that had passed out of the circulation to the site of infection [1]. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.