A human red blood cell has no chromosomes How does this affect the red blood cell's ability to divide?

Answer 1

They do not divide. The process by which red blood cells are produced is called erythropoiesis. Red blood cells are continuously being produced in the red bone marrow of large bones, at a rate of about 2 million per second.

But many people might wonder "how we could produce so many red cells each second without chromosomes which hold a cell's directions for HOW to divide and multiply!" The answer lies in realizing that, unlike many tissue types (skin, muscle, live, etc) that divide and produce two mature tissue cells, red blood cells go through several stages of development

Actually, a human red blood cell DOES have chromosomes, and they DO divide. But, as noted above, this situation exists only in the early life stagesof a red blood cell ( that is, the early stages of erythropoiesis) and these stages take place only in the bone marrow. All the dividing occurs during a red blood cells "infancy", so to speak. (You wouldn't recognize them though, as each is a big cell with a big nucleus - nothing like the common, tiny, nucleus-free "adult" red blood cells. By the time it's an adult, a red blood cell will have lost it's nucleus.) The mature adult red blood cellsdrawn from someone's vein are only the final stage in a red blood cell's life, but for most people these are the only red blood cells they have ever seen.

So, although it is true for the red blood cells you've probably seen, try making a small change in your mindset from "theydo not divide", to ""Adult red blood cells do not divide". That solves the mystery. (Besides, they don't have to! Did that; been there. Now they get to coast - as tiny, flexible oxygen delivery guys.) -John Bohn, MD