Blood Flashcards
what is the fluid connective tissue of the CardioVascular system?
Blood
The CardioVascular system includes what? (2X)
The CV system also includes a pump (the heart) that circulates the fluid and a series of conducting hoses (the blood vessels) that carry it throughout the body.
What is blood?
Blood is a specialized connective tissue that contains cells suspended in a fluid matrix.
What are the components of blood?
Whole blood is made up of plasma (fluid with dissolved substances) and formed elements (cells and cell fragments).
Can the components of whole blood be separated? Why?
The components of whole blood can be fractionated, or separated, for analytical or clinical purposes.
What does plasma contain? (5×)
Plasma contains significant quantities of dissolved proteins, namely albumins, globulins, and fibrinogen. (The remaining 1% is enzymes and hormones)
Which dissolved protein in plasma is most abundant?
Albumins
What is albumin’s function in plasma?
plasma osmolarity and osmotic pressure; also important for transporting fatty acids, hormones, etc.
What is the 2nd most abundant protein in plasma?
Globulins
What is globulin function in plasma? (4x)
(1) antibodies; (2) transport globulins, which bind small ions, hormones, and substances that are very low soluble in water; (3) apolipoproteins that carry lipids in blood; (4) steroid-binding proteins that transport steroid hormones in blood.
What is the third most abundant protein in plasma?
Fibrinogen
what is fibrinogen function in plasma?
Fibrinogen functions in clotting - clotting factor.
What happens when blood is taken & the blood clotting process?
When blood is taken, blood clotting process begins - the soluble fibrinogen in blood is converted to fibrin (an insoluble protein).
What is the most important blood clotting factor?
fibrinogen
What is the major difference between serum & plasma?
The major difference between serum and plasma is the absence of clotting factors in serum.
The clotting process also removes what from the solution?
Caclium
When the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin is inhibited with an anticoagulant,
the resultant blood clot looks a little different and the separated fluid is plasma.
Serum is
Plasma - fibrogens
Where do the plasma proteins originate?
The liver
Can liver disorders alter the composition & functional properties of blood? Why?
liver disorders can alter the composition and functional properties of blood. Because The liver synthesizes and releases more than 90% of the plasma proteins,
What are the formed elements of blood? (3x)
The formed elements of blood are made up primarily of red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC), and cell fragments known as platelets.
How are formed elements produced?
Formed elements are produced in the process of hemopoiesis/hematopoiesis.
What are the 5 blood functions?
- Transporting dissolved gases, nutrients, hormones, and metabolic wastes.
- Regulating the PH and ion composition of interstitial fluids.
- Restricting fluid losses at injury sites.
- Defending against pathogens.
- Stabilizing body temperature.
Do veins, capillaries & arteries have the same basic physical characteristics?
Whole blood from any source—veins, capillaries, or arteries—has the same basic physical characteristics:
What are the basic characteristics of blood? (3x)
- Blood temperature is about 38°C (100.4°F),
- Blood is five times as viscous as water - five times as sticky, five times as cohesive, and five times as resistant to flow as water.
- Blood is slightly alkaline, with a pH between 7.35 and 7.45.
What are the most abundant blood cells?
The most abundant blood cells are the red blood cells (RBCs), AKA erythrocytes,
What are erythrocytes?
the red blood cells (RBCs),
What does red blood cells contain?
These cells contain the red pigment hemoglobin,
What does hemoglobin do?
which binds and transports the O2 and CO2.
The most specialized cells of the body are what?
Red blood cells
Each RBC is a ______________ with a ____________ and ______________
Each RBC is a biconcave disc with a thin central region and a thicker outer margin.
Do RBC have flexible plasma membranes?
Each RBC has very flexible plasma membrane
The biconcave disc shape of RBC allows: (3x)
- A large surface-area-to-volume ratio.
- RBCs can form stacks
- Enables RBCs to bend and flex when entering small capillaries.
The biconcave disc shape of RBC allows a large surface-area-to-volume ratio. (How?)
Each RBC transports oxygen. Oxygen must be quickly absorbed/released as the RBC passes through the capillaries (lungs or peripheral tissues). The greater the surface area per unit volume, the faster the exchange between the RBC’s and the surroundings.
The benefits of being able to RBCs can form stacks is?
RBCs can form stacks and flow through narrow blood vessels.
RBCs form stacks form and dissociate repeatedly.
What would happen if RBCs couldn’t form stacks?
Otherwise - individual cells would bump the walls, bang together, form logjams and restrict blood flow.
Enables RBCs to bend and flex when entering small capillaries. (How?)
Red blood cells are very flexible. By changing shape, individual RBCs can squeeze through capillaries as narrow as 4 μm.
Additional Features of RBC: (3x)
- During maturation, RBC loses any organelle not directly associated with the transport of O2/CO2.
- Mature RBCs are anucleate (without nuclei); without ribosomes; without mitochondria.
- Mature RBCs cannot divide, synthesize protein, have low energy demand, have a short lifespan (~120 days).
Hemoglobin (Hb) have what structure?
a quaternary structure
Each Hb molecule has __________ chains and _____________ chains of polypeptides
Each Hb molecule has two alpha (α) chains and
two beta (β) chains of polypeptides.
Each chain is a globular protein subunit containing a
single molecule of heme, a nonprotein pigment complex that forms a ring.
Each heme unit holds an
iron ion in such a way that the iron can interact with an oxygen molecule, forming oxyhemoglobin, HbO2.
The binding of one O2 molecule to the iron in a heme unit is
reversible.
The oxygen can ____________ from the heme.
can easily dissociate
The amount of O2 bound to hemoglobin depends mostly on ____________ of the plasma.
on the O2 content
When the plasma O2 level is low while CO2 level is high, such as in peripheral capillaries, hemoglobin
releases O2 and binds CO2.
In the lung capillaries, the plasma O2 level is high while CO2 level is low. RBCs
absorb O2 and release CO2.
Anemia is a condition of
low levels of healthy RBCs or insufficient amount of hemoglobin in RBCs.
In anemia, there is not enough ______________ to the peripheral tissues.
enough oxygen delivery
_____________ organ is affected due to oxygen starvation.
Every organ
Anemic individuals become _____________________, and may also become
weak and lethargic; confused, because their brain is affected as well.
With all this wear and tear and no repair mechanisms, a typical RBC has a _________ life span (How long?)
short; 120 days
What causes RBC to die?
either its plasma membrane ruptures or some other damage occurs,
What happens after the RBC dies?
RBCs will be engulfed by phagocytes of the spleen, liver, and red bone marrow.
The continuous elimination of RBCs goes unnoticed, because
new ones enter the bloodstream at a comparable rate.
Erythropoiesis is the formation
of RBCs, and it occurs throughout life.
Embryonic blood cells appear in the bloodstream during the
third week of development.
The embryonic blood cells divide repeatedly and later differentiate into stem cells, like
(hematopoietic stem cells, HSC)
What do Hematopoietic stem cells do?
divide to produce blood cells.
During fetal period, the primary sites of
hemopoiesis are
liver, spleen, and bone marrow.
In adults, RBC formation, or erythropoiesis occurs only in
red bone marrow, also called myeloid tissue.
Only under extreme stimulations, such as _________________ areas of yellow marrow can ________________
such as severe and sustained blood loss; convert to red marrow, increasing the rate of RBC formation.
For RBCs to be produced,
hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in the red bone
marrow must divide.
hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) divide into 2 types of cells called?
(1) myeloid stem cells,
(2) lymphoid stem cells,
myeloid stem cells,
which in turn divide to produce red blood cells and several classes of white blood cells,
lymphoid stem cells,
which divide to produce one class of white blood cells, lymphocytes.
In the red bone marrow, a red blood cell matures in what length of time?
1 week
On day 1, cells destined to become RBCs first
differentiate into
proerythroblasts,
(RBCs) On day 2 and 3 proceed through various
erythroblast stages. During this time, erythroblasts actively synthesize hemoglobin.
(RBCs) After day 4, the erythroblast
sheds its nucleus and becomes a reticulocyte,
(RBCs) Days 5-7. Hemoglobin
Hemoglobin synthesis continues. During this period, the cell continues to synthesize Hb and other proteins.
After 2 days in the red bone marrow, the reticulocyte
enters the bloodstream.