Fig. 1

Obstruction of erythroid differentiation in CRA mouse model. a–e Red blood cell (RBC) level, hemoglobin level, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) in control and LLC-bearing mice at 3 weeks after tumor cell inoculation (n = 6/group). f Representative flow cytometry profiles of erythroid cells in control and LLC-bearing mice. Viable (impermeable to DAPI) Ter119⁺ cells were gated and further analyzed with respect to FSC and CD44 surface expression, which allowed the subgrouping of erythroid cells. Clusters I–V, representing proerythroblasts (I), basophilic erythroblasts (II), polychromatic erythroblasts (III), orthochromatic erythroblasts/immature reticulocytes (IV), and mature red cells (V), were gated, and their percentages are shown. g Percentages of different erythroid cell clusters among Ter119⁺ cells. h The number of Ter119⁺ cells in the bone marrow of control and LLC-bearing mice. i, j The number of cluster III and cluster V cells in Ter119⁺ cells from the bone marrow of a single femur was calculated. k The concentration of plasma erythropoietin (EPO) in control and LLC-bearing mice. Data are presented as the means ± SD of three independent experiments. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001; N.S., no significance; assessed by Student’s t test