ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2023
The human cell count and size distribution.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 109 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
109 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
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- Sex differences in urinary extracellular vesicles originating from the genitourinary system in health and disease.American journal of physiology. Renal physiology · 2026Review
- "MIDA masking" of boronic acid therapeutics for enhanced stability and economy.RSC chemical biology · 2026Article
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- Carbon-to-ATP ratios across the kingdoms of life.iScience · 2026Article
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- The Potential Physiologic Mechanisms by Which Early-Life Nutrition May Influence Type 2 Diabetes Pathophysiology in Humans.Annual review of nutrition · 2026Review
- IntravChip: a vascularized and perfused microfluidic model of the primary tumor microenvironment to collect intravasated tumor cells.Biofabrication · 2026Article
- BASELINE: a CRISPR base editing platform for mammalian-scale single-cell lineage tracing.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- A stochastic, physiology-based digital twin model of hemostasis and oxygenation in trauma resuscitation.Research square · 2026Article
- Cell size-dependent mRNA transcription drives proteome remodeling.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Modeling development of tertiary lymphoid structures in pulmonary tuberculosis by 3D profiling and trajectory analysis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Spatial organization and dynamics of genome replication: from forks to foci.Nucleic acids research · 2026Review
- Injury to the thorax is a dominant contributor to post-traumatic neutrophil mediated inflammatory response.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2026Article
- Coenzyme Q10: A Life Extension Nutrient & The Crystallization Problem.Integrative medicine (Encinitas, Calif.) · 2026Article
49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cell size and cell count are adaptively regulated and intimately linked to growth and function. Yet, despite their widespread relevance, the relation between cell size and count has never been formally examined over the whole human body. Here, we compile a comprehensive dataset of cell size and count over all major cell types, with data drawn from >1,500 published sources. We consider the body of a representative male (70 kg), which allows further estimates of a female (60 kg) and 10-y-old child (32 kg). We build a hierarchical interface for the cellular organization of the body, giving easy access to data, methods, and sources (https://humancelltreemap.mis.mpg.de/). In total, we estimate total body counts of ≈36 trillion cells in the male, ≈28 trillion in the female, and ≈17 trillion in the child. These data reveal a surprising inverse relation between cell size and count, implying a trade-off between these variables, such that all cells within a given logarithmic size class contribute an equal fraction to the body's total cellular biomass. We also find that the coefficient of variation is approximately independent of mean cell size, implying the existence of cell-size regulation across cell types. Our data serve to establish a holistic quantitative framework for the cells of the human body, and highlight large-scale patterns in cell biology.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.