Zheng Lingyue, Wang Jingwei, Jin Xu, Cheng Qimei, Zhang Xiaoru, Li Yue, Wang Di, Song Haoze, Zhu Xu, Lin Lexuan, Ma Jinfa, Gao Jie, Liang Jing, Tong Jingyuan, Shi Lihong
State Key Laboratory of Experimental Hematology, National Clinical Research Center for Blood Diseases, Haihe Laboratory of Cell Ecosystem, Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, 288 Nanjing Road, Tianjin 300020, China.
Tianjin Institutes of Health Science, Tianjin 301600, China.
Blood Sci. 2025 Mar 21;7(2):e00228. doi: 10.1097/BS9.0000000000000228. eCollection 2025 Jun.
The erythroblastic island (EBI) is a multicellular structure defined by the presence of 1 or 2 central macrophages surrounded by at least 3 erythroblasts. EBIs were initially proposed as a specialized microenvironment exclusively for erythroid terminal differentiation. Recent advancements in techniques such as lineage tracing mouse models, imaging flow cytometry, and single-cell RNA sequencing, accumulating evidence has provided novel insights that challenge this conventional view. Notably, the erythropoietin receptor has been identified as a novel marker for EBI macrophages. Additionally, neutrophils have been identified as novel cellular components of EBIs, raising the intriguing hypothesis that EBIs may support other hematopoietic lineage cells as well. Beyond the diverse cellular components of various hematopoietic lineages, even within the erythroid lineage, an immune-prone erythroblast subpopulation has been reported, although it remains unclear whether and how these immune-prone erythroblasts mature in EBIs. These observations indicate that EBIs are a heterogeneous population. In this review, we summarize the most recent findings on EBIs, discuss their potential immune functions, and provide a perspective for future investigations.
成红细胞岛（EBI）是一种多细胞结构，其定义为存在1个或2个中央巨噬细胞，周围环绕着至少3个成红细胞。EBI最初被认为是专门用于红细胞终末分化的特殊微环境。随着谱系追踪小鼠模型、成像流式细胞术和单细胞RNA测序等技术的最新进展，越来越多的证据提供了新的见解，挑战了这一传统观点。值得注意的是，促红细胞生成素受体已被确定为EBI巨噬细胞的一种新标志物。此外，中性粒细胞已被确定为EBI的新型细胞成分，这引发了一个有趣的假设，即EBI也可能支持其他造血谱系细胞。除了各种造血谱系的不同细胞成分外，即使在红细胞谱系内，也有报道称存在一个易免疫的成红细胞亚群，尽管尚不清楚这些易免疫的成红细胞是否以及如何在EBI中成熟。这些观察结果表明EBI是一个异质性群体。在这篇综述中，我们总结了关于EBI的最新发现，讨论了它们潜在的免疫功能，并为未来的研究提供了一个视角。
