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Mature cells are usually specialized. As cells mature, their shape and contents change so that they can be most efficient at the work that they must do.
In the blood, all of the white blood cells keep their nuclei so that they can alter their function to meet the challenges of protecting the body from invaders. The red cells, however, lose their nuclei and fill up with the special oxygen-carrying molecule, hemoglobin. They also assume a special shape that is flexible, yet allows rapid transfer of oxygen into and out of the cell.
 The large cell shown here, the megakaryocyte, stays in the bone marrow after it differentiates from the stem cell. Megakaryocytes are like factories. They manufacture and shed millions of little pieces of themselves into the blood. These pieces of cell, called platelets, contain the substances necessary to help blood clot.
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