Blood Flashcards
What does blood transport?
Oxygen, nutrients, wastes, carbon dioxide, and hormones
Functions of Blood
Transportation
Defense
Regulatory Functions
What does blood defend against?
Blood defends against invasion by pathogens
What does blood regulate?
Blood regulates body temperature, water-salt balance, and the body’s pH ~ 7.4 (slightly basic)
What is blood?
Blood is a fluid connective tissue.
What is blood made out of?
Formed elements - red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets
Formed Elements
Cells and cell fragments that are produced in red bone marrow and suspended in a liquid called plasma. Formed elements are red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
Plasma
A liquid, rich in protein, that suspends the formed elements.
Erythrocytes
Red blood cells
Leukocytes
White blood cells
Thrombocytes
Platelets
Structure of Red Blood Cells
Red Blood Cells lack a nucleus and have very few organelles, but their biconcave shape increases surface area.
What does a red blood cell contain?
Each red blood cell holds about 280 million hemoglobin molecules (protein) that bind 3 molecules of O2 each.
Hemoglobin
Protein molecule that binds to oxygen and carries it. Found in the red blood cells.
How are red blood cells produced?
Red blood cells are produced in red bone marrow and live about 120 days. Erythropoietin hormone is secreted by kidney cells and moves to red marrow when oxygen levels are low, stimulating production of more red blood cells.
Erythropoietin
A hormone that stimulates production of red blood cells in our red bone marrow when oxygen levels are low.
How are old red blood cells disposed of?
The liver and spleen dispose of old red blood cells.
Anemia
Condition resulting from too few red blood cells or two little hemoglobin, causing one to feel “run-down”. This can also be caused by a lack of iron.
Sickle-Cell Disease
Genetic disease that causes red blood cells to become sickle shaped and prone to rupture, thus often leading to anemia.
White Blood Cells
Large blood cells that have a nucleus
How are white blood cells produced?
White blood cells are derived from red bone marrow, and their production is regulated by colony-stimulating factor protein.
Colony-stimulating Factor Protein
Protein that regulates the production of white blood cells.
Where can white blood cells be found?
In tissues as well as blood.
What do white blood cells do?
White blood cells fight infections and are a part of the immune system. They either engulf the invading pathogen or mark it for destruction.
Phagocytosis
When a white blood cell engulfs an invading pathogen and is then destroyed by a lysosome - self sacrifice.
Antibody-antigen pairing
When a white blood cell marks an invading pathogen cell for destruction.
How long do white blood cells live?
White blood cells vary in how long they live. Some live for days, while others live for years.
Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease
An inherited disease in which stem cells of white blood cells lack an enzyme that allows them to fight infection.
Leukemia
A group of cancers that affects white blood cells in which these cells proliferate without control, but are abnormal or immature so they cannot perform their function.
Infectious Mononucleosis
Occurs when the Epstein-Barr virus infects lymphocytes, resulting in fatigue, sore throat, and swollen lymph nodes. It is a member of the herpes family, and once you have this, although it might disappear for a while, it can re-emerge later if one’s immune system is down.
Epstein-Barr Virus
Causes things to swell in one’s body
Platelets
Fragments of other cells that help function in blood clotting.
How do platelets form?
They result from the fragmentation of large cells, called megakaryocytes, in the red bone marrow. About 200 billion are made per day.
Megakaryocytes
Large cells in the red bone marrow that, when they fragment, form platelets.
Thrombin and Fibrinogen
Blood proteins that help create clots by forming fibrin threads that catch red blood cells.
Hemophilia
Genetic disorder that results in a deficiency of a clotting factor so that when a person damages a blood vessel they are unable to properly clot their blood, both internally and externally. Small cuts and bruises can be life-threatening.
Antigen
Foreign substance, often a polysaccharide or protein, that stimulates an immune response
Antibody
Protein made in response to an antigen in the body which binds specifically to that antigen.
Blood Tranfusion
The transfer of blood from one individual to another.
What determines blood type?
The presence or absence of two blood antigens, A and B, on the red blood cells. This determines the types of antibodies present in the plasma. Antibodies are only present for those antigens lacking on the cells.
Blood Doping
Any method of increasing the number of red blood cells to increase athletic performance by allowing for more efficient delivery of oxygen and reduced fatigue.
How does one do blood doping?
Erythropoietin hormone is injected into a person months prior to an athletic event.
What are the downsides of blood doping?
It is thought to be able to cause death due to thickening of blood that leads to a heart attack.
Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn
A condition with incompatible blood types that leads to rupturing of blood cells in a baby before and continuing after birth.
Why are antibodies only present for antigens lacking on the red blood cells?
The proteins (antibodies) recognize and bind the protein (antigen) they are named after. So, if one has A antigens on one’s blood, one has B antibodies.
How does one include the Rh factor in expressing a blood type?
One names the blood type positive or negative - positive if the person has the Rh factor, and negative if the person doesn’t have it.
