Impaired Maturation of Neutrophils

Under normal circumstances the recognizable neutrophilic precursor cells in the bone marrow are not self-sustaining but are continually maintained by an input of cells coming ultimately from a self-replicating precursor or stem-cell compartment that cannot be recognized morphologically. The stem-cell input is amplified by division of cells up to and including the myelocyte stage, with the degree of amplification depending on the number of divisions that occur. Cells no longer divide past the myelocyte stage, but they continue to mature until they are released into the blood as segmented neutrophils. The number of blood neutrophils directly or indirectly regulates this.