The amount of hemoglobin inside of reticulocytes can help determine if there has been enough iron available, to be incorporated into hemoglobin production and then into red blood cell production in the bone marrow, within the past few days.

Can reticulocytes synthesize hemoglobin?

The reticulocytes synthesized hemoglobin, and the MCH of the cells increased approximately 7% during the incubation period.

What is reticulocyte hemoglobin equivalent?

The recent development of automated systems for hematology analysis has made it possible to measure reticulocyte hemoglobin equivalent (RET-He), which is thought to reflect iron content in reticulocytes, in the same sample used for complete blood count tests.