During the past 20 years, celJ biology has made immense strides which have completely transformed the time-honored morphological hematology of yesterday. This progress is primarily due to the introduction of new techniques which allow functional rather than anatomic studies: labeling techniques have made possible the study of celJ kinetics from birth to death of a celJ: culture techniques (both in vivo and in vitro) have made it possible to establish the progeny of certain stern celJs, their growth poten tiaL and the mechanisms of their regulation. The results have been so impressive and have so aroused the enthusiasm 01' young hematologists that it has become fashionable in so me quarters to consider the microscope an "extinct instrument" and morphology littlc more than an outmoded (if agreeable) pastime of little scientific interest. One of the consequences is the wish of some investigators to study cytology without the aid of their eyes. The present book makes us realize once more that morphology is the science of structure and shape and that its aim is not to colJect pictures but to understand them. It is true that microscopic observation, even when made with the electron microscope, cannot by itself answer some basic questions of celJ biology. However, the hematologist who uses only a single technique is like a person who would describe the world from the point of view of a single sensory organ and would refuse the aid of the others.

This monograph is a collection of invited contributions from a group of investiga tors who share a common interest in the interrelationships between the shape, struc ture, and functional characteristics of normal and pathologic erythrocytes. Most of the authors participated in a workshop on red cell shape held in June, 1972 at the Institute of Cell Pathology, Hopital de Bicetre, Paris. We hope that these various contributions on the physiology, pathology, and ultrastructure of red cell shape will be useful and stimulating for other investigators interested in the correlation of shape and structure with the biochemistry and biophysics of the red cell. The text is divided into four sections. Section I deals with red cell shape, including the presentation of a rational descriptive nomenclature and a discussion of post splenectomy changes. Section II deals with biochemical factors that underlie the disco cyte-echinocyte (crenated) and discocyte-stomatocyte (cup-shaped) transformation. This section includes discussions of plasma factors, and of the biochemical dynamics of erythrocyte lipids and consideration of the effects of such factors as cellular ATP, calcium, aging, and various chemical agents as determinants of shape. Section III, which deals with biophysical measurements, includes studies of the deformability of cells of different shapes, descriptions of ways to define precisely the geometric dimensions of the red cell under various circumstances, and a model of membrane structure, which is proposed to account for the dimensions of red cells that undergo shape change."