Intercellular junctions in the hematopoietic compartments of embryonic chick bone marrow.

Avian embryonic marrow is segregated into distinct erythropoietic and granulopoietic compartments. Within each compartment presumptive stem cells and immature blood cells establish intimate contact with their respective stromal cell. In this study we have examined one aspect of potential hematopoietic cell-stromal cell interaction by looking for the presence of intercellular junctions between these two elements. In previous studies, after aldehyde fixation, junctions were not observed, but after perfusion fixation with tannic acid-glutaraldehyde, pentilaminar junctions became evident. These junctions were most characteristically located in the intravascular erythropoietic compartment, but were also found in the extravascular granulopoietic compartment. Junctions frequently joined presumptive stem cells with sinusoidal endothelial cells as well as joining immature erythroblasts with sinusoidal endothelial cells; and less frequently, junctions connected adjacent erythroid cells. However, reticulocytes and erythrocytes were never seen to have formed junctions with any other type of cell. Similar junctions within the extravascular compartment connected contiguous reticular cells and also, on occasion, reticular cells with sinusoidal endothelial cells. Hematopoietic cell-reticular cell junctions were restricted to two classes of blood cells--extravascular presumptive stem cells and mast cells. There was no evidence of junctions connecting mature or maturing granuloid cells and any other cell type. The presence of intercellular junctions between immature blood cells and their respective stromal cells suggests that such interactions might play an important role in avian hematopoiesis. However, further work will be needed to determine if these junctions are merely adherence sites or whether they represent sites of intercellular communication. In either event, these junctions appear to reflect a mechanism whereby the marrow stroma could regulate erythroid maturation.