Terminal erythroid differentiation and its regulation occurs in the bone marrow specialized structure termed erythroblastic islands. The role of macrophages in erythropoiesis is closely related with the integrity of erythroblastic island, which is reliant on adhesive interactions between erythroid and macrophage cells. In regulating red blood cell homeostasis of adult, macrophages have 2 major roles, retaining erythroblast in bone marrow, controlling the final maturation of erythroblasts into reticulocytes and clearing old erythrocytes. Recent research demonstrated that body can affect erythropoiesis by regulating the function of macrophages in physiological or pathological conditions. This paper review focuses on the new advances of this aspect in recent years, including adhesion factor and regulatory factor between macrophage and red blood cells, role of macrophage in development of red blood cells, effect of macrophage on erythropoiesis in different conditiones and so on.