WHAT ARE THE THINGS IN BLOOD?
WHAT ARE THE THINGS IN BLOOD?
We
all have seen blood before either from ourselves or others, right? We either
injured ourselves from cutting anything like when we were using scissors, knives,
or any sharp tools. If you haven’t seen blood before, I am afraid for you
because how could you not have seen blood before? Either way, we all understand
and acknowledge the presence of blood in our body. Surprisingly enough, blood
is all over our body, from head to toe.
Did you know that we have almost 1.5 gallons
of blood in our body or for the medical term, we can extract almost 10 units of
blood in our body. The amount of blood in everyone’s body differs from each
other. The average amount of blood in our body is an estimate because it can
depend on how much we weigh, our sex and even where we live. Like I said, it
differs because of these factors.
For example, babies who are born full term
only have about 75 millilitres of blood per kilogram of their body weight and
if the baby weights around 4 kilograms, they will have about 270 mL of blood in
their body whilst in children the average 40 kilograms child will have about
2,650 mL of blood in their body.
As us, who are adults that weight around 80
kilograms should have about 5,700 mL but for pregnant women, they are different.
For them, they have to support the growing babies, the pregnant mother usually has
somewhere around 30 to 50 percent more blood volume than women who are not
pregnant. This is why we call all of the moms out there, that they are
supermoms!
Unfortunately, there are cases in where you
can lose blood. You might be thinking, how much of blood can we lose? It depends
but put in mind that if our brain doesn’t get enough oxygen to support you,
that shows that you lose too much blood. There are people who goes through
major injury and trauma such as car accident. This may cause loss of blood very
quickly. Losing a big amount of blood is known as haemorrhagic shock but we are
not here to talk about haemorrhagic shock or how we can lose blood, we are here
to tell you about what the components in blood are.
Blood is a specialized body fluid and as
simple blood may seem, which everyone might just think, “Oh, it’s blood. It has
a red colour. What is so special about it anyways?”
Surprisingly there are four main components
in blood which we are going to learn today. There is plasma, red blood cells,
white blood cells and platelets. Please, remember these main components because
you will hear a lot of these through out this article.
Red
blood cells, which are the most numerous living cells in blood, carry waste
products to the kidneys and liver, which filter and clean the blood. Blood also
serves many other functions, including transporting oxygen and nutrients to the
lungs and tissues, which are also referred to as connective tissue, forming
blood clots to prevent excessive blood loss, carrying cells and antibodies that
can fight infection, and regulating body temperature. Whole blood, a mixture of
roughly 45 percent blood cells and 55 percent plasma, is the blood that flows
through the veins, arteries, and capillaries. Blood makes up about 7 to 8% of
our whole-body weight, as I previously stated.
In my university, they occasionally held
events to donate blood to the hospital for others to use but haematology, the
study of blood encompasses much more than this. Blood contains white blood
cells which are monocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils,
macrophages. We also have the erythrocytes, and thrombocytes.
Each of them has different functions in our
body. Something that looks so simple has so many functions in them that helps our
body.
Let me dissect the cells one by one
specifically for you so you would understand it much easier.
Monocytes are fundamentally and mainly what we have. They are responsible for locating and eliminating germs including bacteria, fungus, viruses, and protozoa as well as any contaminated cells from our body. Monocytes ask other white blood cells for assistance in treating wounds and fending off infections. What are monocytes used for? Monocytes are the cellular fire department. They begin their life cycle in the bone marrow, where they develop and learn how to defend our body. As soon as they reach maturity, they will enter our circulation and tissues to protect our body from external attackers, as I just mentioned.
Why are monocytes said to as our
firefighters? This is due to the fact that, if we imagine germs as fire, they
will generate an alarm to sound in our bodies, summoning monocytes to battle
the fire. These cellular firemen can differentiate into dendritic cells and
macrophages, two separate cell types.
We then move on to lymphocytes. Another variety
of white blood cell is the lymphocyte. They are crucial to the functioning of
our immune system, which aids in the body's defence against illness and
infection. An extensive network of immune cells, lymph nodes, lymph tissue, and
lymphatic organs makes up our immune system. Immune cells include lymphocytes.
The T cells and the B cells are the two primary subtypes of lymphocytes.
What do the roles of those two cells entail?
While B cells produce antibodies, which are proteins that target viruses, bacteria,
and other foreign invaders, T cells guide our body's immune system response and
actively assault and kill the infected cells and tumour cells.
As I just mentioned, lymphocytes support the
immune system's defences against invading viruses, germs, and cancer. Our
immune system benefits from lymphocytes because they keep track of every
antigen it encounters. Some lymphocytes become memory cells once they have an
encounter. Memory cells will recognise an antigen and react swiftly if they
come into contact with it again. You don't contract an infection like measles
or chickenpox more than once because of this. Additionally, it explains why
vaccinations can help avoid some diseases.
Neutrophils are the next to come. This cell serves as the initial line of defence for our immune system. White blood cells come in three different subtypes: granulocytes, lymphocytes, and monocytes.
Consider our immune system as the arm of our
body's general responsible for guarding against the entry of bacteria and
viruses. Our immune system sends its little army of mature neutrophils,
eosinophils, and basophils to move through our circulation system and tissues
in order to prepare for intruders that will cause illness, infection, and
disease once our white blood cells complete basic training in our bone marrow.
Our neutrophils arrive on the scene initially in the case of an immune system
attack. By laying traps and consuming them, neutrophils will capture and kill
the invasive bacteria or germs. Our body will respond to the conflict by
becoming red and swollen, and our neutrophils will begin the process of tissue
repair, which will heal the injury or damage.
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Last but not least for white blood cells is
basophils. Basophils: What are they? Basophils are one of the various types of
white blood cells that are present in our body, as I just explained. These
blood cells are the least common in all mammals and make up less than 1% of all
of our circulating white blood cells. Our bone marrow produces basophils, which
are cells that are a component of our immune system. The connective tissues of
our body include basophils. They are able to aid in the detection and
eradication of some early cancer cells. When an allergic reaction or asthma
attack occurs, basophils also release the histamine stored in their granules.
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We have covered all the white blood cells,
now it’s time for us to talk about the red blood cells or the scientific name
of it is erythrocytes.
Erythrocytes have a biconcave form, which is
quite reminiscent of a donut. This indicates that their outskirts are thicker
than their centre.
What makes it appear that way? Erythrocytes'
primary function is to transport and exchange gases like oxygen and carbon
dioxide between the tissues and the lungs.
What causes that to occur? Oxyhaemoglobin is
created in the lung capillaries when haemoglobin binds to the oxygen that we breathe.
Erythrocytes and consequently arterial blood are coloured vivid red by this
material. The arteries are the next stop for erythrocyte-rich oxygen before it
reaches the tissue capillaries. Haemoglobin is released in tissue capillaries,
where it diffuses into the tissues. At the same time, the tissues' carbon
dioxide binds to haemoglobin to create deoxyhaemoglobin. Red blood cells and
venous blood are coloured purple blue by this chemical. Erythrocytes that are
high in carbon dioxide then migrate through veins to the heart and lungs.
Haemoglobin is released from the capillaries of the lungs in exchange for a
fresh dosage of oxygen.
Last but not least, the thrombocytes. Specialized
blood cells called thrombocytes regulate blood clotting. They resemble tiny,
monochromatic plates. Thrombocytes produce a clot when a blood artery tears,
sealing the tear to stop bleeding. As is well knowledge, thrombocytes are
utilised to treat wounds and injuries.
The process by which thrombocytes create
clots consists of several steps, the first of which is adhesion, in which the
bleeding site is first contacted by thrombocytes from the ruptured vessel in an
effort to stop the blood flow. They then prompt us chemically to seek
additional assistance. They will then undergo aggregation. More thrombocytes
respond to the call in this stage, joining forces to form a clot. Don't forget
about coagulation, either. In a process known as a coagulation cascade, as the
thrombocytes accumulate at the site of the cut, they close up the blood vessel,
fusing the platelets and fibrin together to form the clot. The scab that forms
on a cut is made of fibrin.
Hope you guys have learned a little something from the article I wrote <3
PREPARED BY
AZHANA IZZAH BINTI AZHAR
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