Hemogenesis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process by which new blood cells are formed and developed from precursor cells, encompassing the generation of various blood components including red cells, white cells, and platelets
2. The biological mechanism involving the production and differentiation of blood cells within the body, especially from stem cells in bone marrow or embryonic tissues, resulting in mature circulating blood cells
3. The developmental sequence of cellular formation that leads to the creation and specialization of blood cells, covering the entire formation of cellular elements in the bloodstream from initial progenitor stages to functional cells

Etymology: Hemogenesis is a compound built entirely from Greek parts: "haima," meaning blood, and "genesis," meaning origin or production, from "gignesthai," to be born or become. The combination is a modern scientific coinage rather than a classical Greek word, so no ancient writer used it. It is formed on the same pattern as "hematopoiesis" (from "poiesis," making), and English medical writers built such terms freely from Greek roots in the 19th and 20th centuries as biology became more specialized. The word works as a compound of "haem-" (or "hemo-") and "-genesis," the latter familiar from words like "genesis," "biogenesis," and "pathogenesis," each describing how something comes into being. In practice, "hemogenesis" names the process by which blood cells arise, and it is sometimes used more narrowly for the stage where blood-forming cells emerge from specialized endothelial tissue during embryonic development.

Synonyms: blood formation, hematopoiesis, blood cell formation, erythropoiesis, myelopoiesis