MEMOIR OF BLOOD

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"Time is long, but life is short. Despite its important roles in our body, blood never have the chance to stay long enough to see the impact of their contribution. Now, we were humbly present to you a blog dedicated to the blood, our stream of life. All about blood, its intricate journey in the body, the link and correlation to beauty and health and the end of its life are all here. Stay tuned for our weekly update to apprehend the existence of our source of life, the blood."

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THE BODY OF BLOOD

Ever heard about blood is thicker than water? Keep calm, we are not going to discuss about literature today. The question is, what is there in blood that makes it thicker than water? For your information, blood can be divided into two parts, the cellular components and the plasma. Well, let’s take a look at the foundation of the human blood.

Cellular components

The cellular components that make up 45% of human blood are named so as they are enclosed in a plasma membrane and have a definite structure and shape. Its loyal subordinates are erythrocytes, leukocytes and platelets.

1. Erythrocytes

An erythrocyte or known as red blood cell (RBC) is a disc-shaped cell with a thick rim and a thin sunken centre. The plasma membrane of a mature RBC has glycoproteins and glycolipids that determine a person’s blood type. On its inner surface are two proteins called spectrin and actin that give the membrane resilience and durability. For what? Well, this aspect allows the RBCs to stretch, bend and fold as they squeeze through small blood vessels, and to spring back to their original shape as they pass through larger vessel.

2. Leukocytes

White blood cells (WBCs) are also known as leukocytes. They can be futher divided into granulocytes and agranulocytes. The former have cytoplasms that contain organelles that appear as coloured granules through light microscopy, hence their name. Granulocytes consist of neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils. In contrast, agranulocytes do not contain granules. They consist of lymphocytes and monocytes.

3. Platelet

The blood platelets are the smallest cells of the blood, averaging about 2 to 4 μm in diameter. Although much more numerous than the white blood cells, they occupy a much smaller fraction of the volume of the blood because of their relatively minute size. Like the red blood cells, they lack a nucleus and are incapable of cell division or mitosis, but they have a more complex metabolism and internal structure than the red blood cells. When seen in fresh blood they appear spheroid, but they have a tendency to extrude hair-like filaments from their membranes. They adhere to each other but not to red blood cells and white blood cells. Although minute in structure, never deemed them useless as the tiny granules within platelets contain substances important for the clot-promoting activity of platelets.

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Plasma

Made up 90 to 92% from water and another 8 to 10% from salt, plasma composed 55% of human blood.  The salt in plasma comprised of several other components. Among them are:

- Plasma Proteins

These are the most abundant substance in plasma by weight and play a part in a variety of roles including clotting, defence and transport. There are three major categories of plasma proteins.

· Albumins, which are the smallest and most abundant plasma proteins.

· Globulins, which can be subdivided into three classes from smallest to largest in molecular weight into alpha, beta and gamma globulins.

· Fibrinogen, which is a soluble precursor of a sticky protein called fibrin, which forms the framework of blood clot.

- Nutrients

Those absorbed by the digestive tract are transported in the blood plasma. These include glucose, amino acids, fats, cholesterol, phospholipids, vitamins and minerals.

- Dissolved Gases

Some oxygen and carbon dioxide are transported by plasma. Plasma also contains a substantial amount of dissolved nitrogen.

- Electrolytes

The most abundant of these are sodium ions, which account for more of the blood’s osmolarity than any other solute.

- Waste Products

Being toxic end products of the breakdown of substances in the body, these are usually cleared from the bloodstream and are excreted by the kidneys at a rate that balances their production.

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"Such a lot of things in a simple looking fluid, right? No wonder the blood is thicker than water.  However, other quotes say, blood is thicker than water but maple syrup is thicker than blood. It seemed the numerous components of blood are still minuscule compared to the constituent of maple syrup! "

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