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I know that blood platelets and erythrocytes do not have a nucleus. Are there more cells in the human body without a nucleus, such as pancreas, cartilage, or lung cells?

AliceD
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Ace
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2 Answers2

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Wanted to give a one line answer some day!!

Lens fiber cells and keratinocytes.

WYSIWYG
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    That's two lines :) +1 nonetheless, interesting finds! – AliceD Apr 24 '15 at 21:34
  • What do lens fiber cells and keratinocytes do? Thanks for the help, but I just wanted to know of all the common known cells, like cells of organs. – Ace Apr 24 '15 at 21:42
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    @Ace lens fiber cells differentiate to form the lens of your eye and keratinocytes form skin and hair. – WYSIWYG Apr 25 '15 at 09:47
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    @WYSIWYG Wonderful findings. – Tyto alba Jul 19 '16 at 17:01
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    Most keratinocyte types have a nucleus. A small subtraction of keratinocytes, namely corneocytes , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corneocyte , lack a nucleus. – tsttst Jul 20 '16 at 02:00
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Short answer
As far as I know, red blood cells and blood platelets are the only human cells in our body without a nucleus.

Background
Erythrocytes and thrombocytes are the only human cells without a nucleus, as far as I know. However, if you count the gut as being part of the human body (in essence it is a continuation of the skin and as such it can be considered to be on our outside), then we are loaded with cells lacking a nucleus, namely all the bacteria that live in our intestines such as E. coli. Bacteria, being prokaryotes, lack a nucleus. In fact, there are ten times more bacteria than human cells in our gut (Wenner, 2007).

Reference
Wenner, Sci Am 2007

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AliceD
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