Davinia Morera, Nerea Roher, Laia Ribas, Joan Carles Balasch, Carmen Doñate, Agnes Callol, Sebastian Boltaña, Steven Roberts, Giles Goetz, Frederick W. Goetz, Simon A. MacKenzie

Throughout the primary literature and within textbooks, the erythrocyte has been tacitly accepted to have maintained a unique physiological role; namely gas transport and exchange. In non-mammalian vertebrates, nucleated erythrocytes are present in circulation throughout the life cycle and a fragmented series of observations in mammals support a potential role in non-respiratory biological processes. We hypothesised that nucleated erythrocytes could actively participate via ligand-induced transcriptional re-programming in the immune response.