Megakaryocyte polyploidy as a grouped geometric distribution obeying the log-normal population law.
Discrete nuclear lobe scores and flow- or image-cytometry DNA values of classically identified megakaryocytes behave as a grouped geometric distribution. This model is fully specified by a geometric mean and standard deviation (GM and GSD), the latter typically being ca 1.16 for volumes of diploid blood cell populations. Via log-normal probability paper, the 30 to 50 megakaryocytes in clinical marrow smears readily yield the ploidy model's GM and GSD which are named MPM and MPD for megakaryocyte polyploidy median and dispersion. In euthrombopoietic outbred mammals, MPMs are ca 12N ploidy units, and MPDs approximate a factor of 1.41. Both are unitless criteria. Thus, the thrombon is characterized by three populations exhibiting the high size dispersion which unmasks canonical operation of the log-normal population law: picoliter megakaryothrombocytes with their MPD ca 1.41, femtoliter thrombocytes with a volume GSD ca 1.74, and the end product of locally delivered pieces of subattoliter platelet dust with a volume GSD ca. 2.0.
von Behrens
W E
WE
Biometrology, San Francisco, California.
D000818:Animals; D001792:Blood Platelets; D006801:Humans; D008533:Megakaryocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011123:Polyploidy