burst-forming unit

burst-forming unit

A small, partially differentiated lymphocyte-like progenitor cell which arises from a pluripotent stem cell, the colony-forming unit for granulocytes(CFU-GEMM), RBCs, megakaryocytes and monocytes in the bone marrow, giving rise to either RBCs (BFU-E) or megakaryocytes (BFU-Meg); these in turn give rise to colony-forming units. The so-called bipolar BFUs have either erythroid or megakaryocytic differentiation.

burst-forming-unit

, burst-forming unit,

BFU

A stem cell that produces red blood cell progeny and not blood cells of other lineages.