As a rule, young cells are larger than mature cells. During the maturation the cell size diminishes progressively.
There is just one exception for this: the development of thrombocytic lineage. At the beginning, the size of the cell increases so that the megakariocyte is larger than the stem cell of megakaryoblast. But at the end, what enters the blood circulation are only fragments of the cytoplasm: blood platelets – thrombocytes.
With the decreasing of the cell size, the sizes of the nucleus and the cytoplasm decrease. The decrease of the size of nucleus is more prominent. That consequence is the change in the relation between the size of the nucleus and the cytoplasm (nucleocytoplasmatic ratio). In younger cells this ratio is to the benefit of the nucleus, in mature ones to the cytoplasm. |
