Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells.
Blood performs many important functions within the body including:
- Supply of oxygen to tissues (bound to hemoglobin, which is carried in red cells)
- Supply of nutrients such as glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids (dissolved in the blood or bound to plasma proteins (e.g., blood lipids))
- Removal of waste such as carbon dioxide, urea, and lactic acid
- Immunological functions, including circulation of white blood cells, and detection of foreign material by antibodies
- Coagulation, which is one part of the body’s self-repair mechanism (blood clotting after an open wound in order to stop bleeding)
- Messenger functions, including the transport of hormones and the signaling of tissue damage
- Regulation of body pH
- Regulation of core body temperature
- Hydraulic functions
Constituents of human blood
Blood accounts for 7% of the human body weight, with an average density of approximately 1060 kg/m3, very close to pure water’s density of 1000 kg/m3. The average adult has a blood volume of roughly 5 liters (1.3 gal), which is composed of plasma and several kinds of cells. These blood cells (which are also called corpuscles or “formed elements“) consist of erythrocytes (red blood cells, RBCs), leukocytes (white blood cells), and thrombocytes (platelets). By volume, the red blood cells constitute about 45% of whole blood, the plasma about 54.3%, and white cells about 0.7%.
Whole blood (plasma and cells) exhibits non-Newtonian fluid dynamics; its flow properties are adapted to flow effectively through tiny capillary blood vessels with less resistance than plasma by itself. In addition, if all human hemoglobin were free in the plasma rather than being contained in RBCs, the circulatory fluid would be too viscous for the cardiovascular system to function effectively.
Plasma
Other important components include:
- Serum albumin
- Blood-clotting factors (to facilitate coagulation)
- Immunoglobulins (antibodies)
- lipoprotein particles
- Various other proteins
- Various electrolytes (mainly sodium and chloride)
The term serum refers to plasma from which the clotting proteins have been removed. Most of the proteins remaining are albumin and immunoglobulins.
Blood Cells
ERYTHROCYTES
These cells’ cytoplasm is rich in haemoglobin, an iron-containing biomolecule that can bind oxygen and is responsible for the blood’s red color.
In humans, mature red blood cells are oval and flexible biconcave disks. They lack a cell nucleus and most organelles to accommodate maximum space for haemoglobin. 2.4 million new erythrocytes are produced per second. The cells develop in the bone marrow and circulate for about 100–120 days in the body before their components are recycled by macrophages. Each circulation takes about 20 seconds. Approximately a quarter of the cells in the human body are red blood cells.
Red blood cells are also known as RBCs, red cells, red blood corpuscles (an archaic term), haematids, erythroid cells or erythrocytes (from Greek erythros for “red” and kytos for “hollow”, with cytetranslated as “cell” in modern usage).
A typical human erythrocyte has a disk diameter of approximately 6.2-8.2 µm and a thickness at the thickest point of 2-2.5 µm and a minimum thickness in the centre of 0.8-1 µm, being much smaller than most other human cells.
As red blood cells contain no nucleus, protein biosynthesis is currently assumed to be absent in these cells, although a recent study indicates the presence of all the necessary biomachinery in the cells to do so.
Human erythrocytes are produced through a process named erythropoiesis, developing from committed stem cells to mature erythrocytes in about 7 days. Through this process erythrocytes are continuously produced in the red bone marrow of large bones, at a rate of about 2 million per second in a healthy adult. (In the embryo, the liver is the main site of red blood cell production.) The production can be stimulated by the hormoneerythropoietin (EPO), synthesised by the kidney. Just before and after leaving the bone marrow, the developing cells are known as reticulocytes; these comprise about 1% of circulating red blood cells. When matured, these cells live in blood circulation for about 100 to 120 days (and 80 to 90 days in a full term infant). At the end of their lifespan, they become senescent, and are removed from circulation.
LEUKOCYTES
The number of leukocytes in the blood is often an indicator of disease. There are normally approximately 7000 white blood cells per microliter of blood. They make up approximately 1% of the total blood volume in a healthy adult. An increase in the number of leukocytes over the upper limits is called leukocytosis, and a decrease below the lower limit is called leukopenia. The physical properties of leukocytes, such as volume, conductivity, and granularity, may change due to activation, the presence of immature cells, or the presence of malignant leukocytes in leukemia, and may be reported as Cell Population Data.
The name “white blood cell” derives from the fact that after centrifugation of a blood sample, the white cells are found in the buffy coat, a thin, typically white layer of nucleated cells between the sedimented red blood cells and the blood plasma. The scientific term leukocyte directly reflects this description, derived from Ancient Greek λευκός (white), and κύτταρος (cell). Buffy coat may sometimes be green if there are large amounts of neutrophils in the sample, due to the heme-containing enzyme myeloperoxidase that they produce.
Types
There are several different types of white blood cells. They all have many things in common, but are all distinct in form and function. A major distinguishing feature of some leukocytes is the presence of granules; white blood cells are often characterized as granulocytes or agranulocytes:
- Granulocytes (polymorphonuclear leukocytes): leukocytes characterized by the presence of differently staining granules in their cytoplasm when viewed under light microscopy. These granules are membrane-bound enzymes that act primarily in the digestion of endocytosed particles. There are three types of granulocytes: neutrophils, basophils, and eosinophils, which are named according to their staining properties.
- Agranulocytes (mononuclear leukocytes): leukocytes characterized by the apparent absence of granules in their cytoplasm. Although the name implies a lack of granules these cells do contain non-specific azurophilic granules, which are lysosomes. The cells include lymphocytes, monocytes, and macrophages.
- 200,000–500,000 thrombocytes: Also called platelets, thrombocytes are responsible for blood clotting (coagulation). They change fibrinogen into fibrin. This fibrin creates a mesh onto which red blood cells collect and clot, which then stops more blood from leaving the body and also helps to prevent bacteria from entering the body.
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