Week 12 part 1 Flashcards
What are the 4 things blood is composed of?
RBC, WBC, platelets, plasma
What are the 3 functions of blood?
1) Transportation - of nutrients, oxygen, cellular waste, etc.
2) Defence - it’s WBC protect body from threats
3) Maintains homeostasis - regulates body temperature
Is blood a type of connective tissue?
Yes
What are erythrocytes another name for?
RBC
When is blood oxygenated? What colour is it then and why?
After passing through lungs, it is bright red (due to high oxygen content)
When is blood deoxygenated? What colour is it then?
After passing through tissues, it is darker red due to lower oxygen content
Is it true that women have less blood than men?
Yes
Why is blood viscous (thick)? It is 5x thicker than water.
Because of the plasma content
What is blood plasma composed of?
Mainly water with many types of proteins in it
What are the three main types of plasma proteins? List them.
- albumin
- globulin
- fibrinogen
What is the purpose of the albumin protein in plasma?
It helps maintain osmotic pressure in blood vessels
What is the purpose of the globulin protein? There are three types of it.
- alpha and beta globulin transport materials (iron, lipids and fat-soluble vitamins)
- gamma globulin - these includes antibodies (called immunoglobulins)
What is the purpose of fibrinogen? Are they the least abundant? Where are they made?
They are needed for blood clotting. They are the least abundant. They are made in the liver.
What is the process of hematopoiesis, and where does it occur?
It’s the differentiation of stem cells into blood parts.
It happens in bone marrow
What do lymphoid stem cells differentiate into?
Leukocytes (another name for WBC)
What do myeloid stem cells differentiate into?
Into everything else besides WBCs (i.e. RBC, platelets, and other materials)
If someone has leukaemia, where do they need a transplant from?
A bone marrow transplant because that’s where fresh blood is produced
What type of growth factor is erythropoietin?
What is it stimulated by? What is a growth factor in general?
It is a hormone that tells stem cells to make RBC, and is stimulated by low O2 levels.
A growth factor is a group of hormones / proteins that stimulate the growth of a specific type of tissue / cells
Where are red blood cells secreted / made?
They are made in the red marrow of the bone.
List RBC, WBC, and platelets from least to most abundant in blood.
- RBC
- Platelets
- WBC
What is the main job of erythrocytes (otherwise known as RBC)
1) pick up inhaled oxygen from lungs and bring it to body’s tissues
2) pick up carbon dioxide waste from tissues and bring it to lungs to exhale
What are RBC called before they mature in the bone marrow?
Reticulocyte
RBC use anaerobic respiration since they lack mitochondria and don’t use any 02 they transport. What is anaerobic respiration?
A chemical reaction for respiration since there is no oxygen
Fully developed RBC have very few organelles and contain structural proteins to maintain their shape. What is the purpose of their shape? (3 reasons)
1) large SA (surface exchange) for gas exchange
2) fold in half through tighter blood vessels (capillaries)
3) in wider vessels, RBCs stack themselves like coins as they move through
What is the name of the shape of RBC / erythrocytes?
Bioncave disk
What is the structure of a hemoglobin? One RBC may contain 300 million hemoglobin molecules, and it is what carries the oxygen in RBC.
It is made up of 4 globin proteins, each attached to one molecule of iron-containing “heme” (a pigment)
Are platelets cells, or just pieces of cells?
They are not actual cells, just pieces of cells.
What is the job of platelets?
They limit blood loss.
What is the growth factor that regulates the production of platelets, i.e. what regulates the production of the cell it comes from?
Thrombopoietin
Platelets are pieces of a broken cell - what is that cell called?
Megakaryocytes
What is the function of hemostasis?
It is what your body does to prevent blood loss
What are the three steps in hemostasis?
After cutting yourself:
1) The blood vessels constrict
2) Platelets plug the hole, creating a “scab”
3) Coagulation (process of creating a blood clot = changing blood from liquid to gel) happens, allowing the vessel wall to be repaired since the blood stopped leaking
