Morphologic analysis of blood and bone marrow smears. (A) Morphology of red blood cells of the Propositus in peripheral blood smears shows distinct aniso-poikilocytosis, microcytosis, and hypochromasia. (B) Morphology of erythroblasts in bone marrow smears shows poor hemoglobinization with a ragged appearance of the cytoplasm (panoptic stain). (C) Perls' staining of bone marrow smears shows 2 basophilic erythroblasts without and 1 mature erythroblast with abnormally large siderotic granules, some of them clustered around the nucleus. One mature erythrocyte also displays multiple blue granules. (D) Transition electron micrograph of a polychromatophilic erythroblast (× 8000) showing many large siderotic granules. Top left: siderocyte. (E) Transition electron micrograph of an erythroblast (× 25 000) showing amorphous electron-dense material within structures suggestive of a lysosome or degenerative mitochondria. (F) Transition electron micrograph of an erythroblast (× 25 000) showing iron loaded mitochondria with retained cristae.