Abstract
In a recent comprehensive review of observations made on the bone marrow in states of thyroid dysfunction Bomford 1 concludes that the scanty evidence available indicates a partial atrophy of the marrow in hypothyroidism. In hyperthyroidism there is first an increased activity, and then a scarcity of hemopoietic marrow cells. He believes that diminished oxygen requirements of all the tissues and consequent lack of stimulation to erythropoiesis, in hypothyroidism causes a quantitative hypoplasia of active marrow. This belief is based on postmortem findings in cretins 2 3 4 5 6 and studies of rabbit marrow after thyroidectomy. 7 8 The hyperthyroid marrows were obtained from rabbits after the feeding of thyroid or injection of thyroxine. 9 10
I am reporting the results of studies of the aspirated sternal marrow of humans in “normal”, hyperthyroid, and myxedematous states. The method 11 of obtaining and studying the marrow has been in use at the University of Illinois for over 20 months and to date over 700 aspirations have been done in a wide variety of conditions. The technic and apparatus used in the above method were recently reported in detail. 12
Aspirated sternal marrow from 18 individuals with normal peripheral blood picture and no complaints other than a hernia in several, contained an average of 6.2% (ranging from 4 to 10%) of nucleated cells. Stained smears of these nucleated cells revealed that the ratio of myeloid to erythroid cells fell between 2:1 and 4:1.
Marrow taken in the same way from 12 individuals in a hyperthyroid state contained an average of 13.5% (7% to 22%) nucleated cells with a myeloid-erythroid ratio in the stained smears running from 5 to 1 to as high as 20 to 1.
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