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Jai Ganesh

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Red Blood Cells

Red Blood Cells

Gist

Red blood cells carry oxygen from our lungs to the rest of our bodies. Then they make the return trip, taking carbon dioxide back to our lungs to be exhaled.

Anemia is a problem of not having enough healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin to carry oxygen to the body's tissues. Hemoglobin is a protein found in red cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to all other organs in the body. Having anemia can cause tiredness, weakness and shortness of breath.

Medical conditions that can cause an increase in red blood cells include: Heart failure, causing low blood oxygen levels. Congenital heart disease (“congenital” means you're born with it). Polycythemia vera (a rare blood cancer in which your bone marrow produces too many red blood cells).

What drink increases red blood cells?

Iron-rich drinks include apple juice, apricot nectar, beef broth, beet juice, cocoa using natural cocoa powder, “green” smoothies, orange juice, pea protein smoothies, prune juice, tomato juice, and spinach juice.

Summary

Red blood cell is cellular component of blood, millions of which in the circulation of vertebrates give the blood its characteristic colour and carry oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. The mature human red blood cell is small, round, and biconcave; it appears dumbbell-shaped in profile. The cell is flexible and assumes a bell shape as it passes through extremely small blood vessels. It is covered with a membrane composed of lipids and proteins, lacks a nucleus, and contains hemoglobin—a red iron-rich protein that binds oxygen.

The function of the red cell and its hemoglobin is to carry oxygen from the lungs or gills to all the body tissues and to carry carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism, to the lungs, where it is excreted. In invertebrates, oxygen-carrying pigment is carried free in the plasma; its concentration in red cells in vertebrates, so that oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged as gases, is more efficient and represents an important evolutionary development. The mammalian red cell is further adapted by lacking a nucleus—the amount of oxygen required by the cell for its own metabolism is thus very low, and most oxygen carried can be freed into the tissues. The biconcave shape of the cell allows oxygen exchange at a constant rate over the largest possible area.

The red cell develops in bone marrow in several stages: from a hemocytoblast, a multipotential cell in the mesenchyme, it becomes an erythroblast (normoblast); during two to five days of development, the erythroblast gradually fills with hemoglobin, and its nucleus and mitochondria (particles in the cytoplasm that provide energy for the cell) disappear. In a late stage the cell is called a reticulocyte, which ultimately becomes a fully mature red cell. The average red cell in humans lives 100–120 days; there are some 5.2 million red cells per cubic millimetre of blood in the adult human.

Though red cells are usually round, a small proportion are oval in the normal person, and in certain hereditary states a higher proportion may be oval. Some diseases also display red cells of abnormal shape—e.g., oval in pernicious anemia, crescent-shaped in sickle cell anemia, and with projections giving a thorny appearance in the hereditary disorder acanthocytosis. The number of red cells and the amount of hemoglobin vary among different individuals and under different conditions; the number is higher, for example, in persons who live at high altitudes and in the disease polycythemia. At birth the red cell count is high; it falls shortly after birth and gradually rises to the adult level at puberty.

Details:

What are red blood cells?

Red blood cells, also known as erythrocytes, deliver oxygen to the tissues in your body. Oxygen turns into energy and your tissues release carbon dioxide. Your red blood cells also transport carbon dioxide to your lungs for you to exhale.

Function:

What do red blood cells do?

Red blood cells are responsible for transporting oxygen from your lungs to your body’s tissues. Your tissues produce energy with the oxygen and release a waste, identified as carbon dioxide. Your red blood cells take the carbon dioxide waste to your lungs for you to exhale.

Do red blood cells carry oxygen?

Yes, a red blood cell takes oxygen from the lungs to the tissues in your body. Your cells use oxygen to produce energy.

Anatomy:

Where are red blood cells made?

Red blood cells develop in your body’s soft bone tissue (bone marrow) and release into your bloodstream after they fully mature, which takes about seven days.

What do red blood cells look like?

Red blood cells get their bright red color from a protein that allows them to carry oxygen from your lungs and deliver it to other tissues in your body (hemoglobin).

Red blood cells are microscopic and have the shape of a flat disk or doughnut, which is round with an indentation in the center, but it isn’t hollow. Red blood cells don’t have a nucleus like white blood cells, allowing them to change shape and move throughout your body easier.

What are red blood cells made of?

Red blood cells grow in your bone marrow. Bone marrow creates almost all of the cells in your body. Red blood cells contain a protein called hemoglobin, which is responsible for carrying oxygen.

Conditions and Disorders:

What are the common conditions that affect red blood cells?

Red blood cell conditions have either a low or high red blood cell count.

Medical conditions that affect a low red blood cell count include:

* Anemia. Your blood carries less oxygen than normal and causes your body to feel cold, tired and weak.
* Blood loss. Your body loses more blood cells than it can produce.
* Bone marrow disorder: You experience damage to your bone marrow, where red blood cells form (leukemia, lymphoma).
* Cancer. Certain cancers and chemotherapy treatment for cancer can affect the number of red blood cells your body produces.

Medical conditions that affect a high red blood cell count include:

* Polycythemia vera. A high red blood cell count causes your blood to thicken, leading to heart attack or stroke.
* Congenital heart disease. One or more structures in your heart is irregular due to not forming completely during fetal development.
* Lung disease. The tissue in your lungs scars due to emphysema, COPD or pulmonary fibrosis.
* Hypoxia. The oxygen level in your blood is low.
* Carbon monoxide. Smoking increases your chance of exposure to carbon monoxide.

What are common symptoms of red blood cell conditions?

Common symptoms of conditions involving red blood cells include:

* Fatigue
* Muscle weakness
* Lack of energy
* Headache or dizziness
* Blurry vision
* Cold hands and feet

What causes a low red blood cell count?

Causes that contribute to low red blood cell count include:

* Vitamin deficiency (iron, B9 and B12)
* Malnutrition
* Preexisting medical conditions or cancer treatment (chemotherapy)

What causes a high red blood cell count?

Causes that contribute to a high red blood cell count include:

* Smoking cigarettes
* Living at a high elevation
* Taking performance-enhancing drugs (anabolic steroids)
* Dehydration
* Medical conditions including heart or lung disease

What are common tests to check the health of my red blood cells?

A complete blood count (CBC) test examines how many blood cells (red and white) are in your blood. A medical professional will sample your blood to count how many red blood cells are present.

What is a normal red blood cell count?

Normal red blood cell counts differ based on the person, but general ranges include:

* Males: 4.7 to 6.1 million red blood cells per microliter of blood
* Females: 4.2 to 5.4 million red blood cells per microliter of blood
* Children: 4 to 5.5 million red blood cells per microliter of blood

If your count is outside of these ranges, it’s either too high or too low and your healthcare provider will offer additional tests or treatments.

What are common treatments for red blood cell disorders?

Treatment for red blood cell disorders varies based on the diagnosis and severity of the condition. Treatment ranges from:

* Taking vitamins
* Eating a well-balanced diet
* Treating existing medical conditions
* Getting a blood transfusion

Care:

How do I take care of my red blood cells?

You can maintain healthy red blood cells by eating a nutritious diet that’s full of vitamins and minerals like iron, B9 (folic acid) and B12, which includes:

* Red meat (beef) and meat from the organs, like liver
* Fish
* Leafy vegetables, like kale and spinach
* Lentils, beans and peas
* Nuts and dried berries

Additional Common Questions:

What is hemoglobin within red blood cells?

Hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen and exists within each red blood cell. If your red blood cell was a vehicle, hemoglobin is in the driver’s seat, picking up oxygen at the lungs and transporting it to the tissues throughout your body.

What are interesting facts about red blood cells?

* Red blood cells have a limited lifespan because they don’t have a center membrane (nucleus). When a red blood cell travels through your blood vessels, it uses up its energy supply and only survives an average of 120 days.
* Your blood appears red because red blood cells make up 40% of your blood.

Additional Information

Red blood cells (RBCs), referred to as erythrocytes (from Ancient Greek erythros 'red' and kytos 'hollow vessel', with -cyte translated as 'cell' in modern usage) in academia and medical publishing, also known as red cells, erythroid cells, and rarely haematids, are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate's principal means of delivering oxygen (O2) to the body tissues—via blood flow through the circulatory system. Erythrocytes take up oxygen in the lungs, or in fish the gills, and release it into tissues while squeezing through the body's capillaries.

The cytoplasm of a red blood cell is rich in hemoglobin (Hb), an iron-containing biomolecule that can bind oxygen and is responsible for the red color of the cells and the blood. Each human red blood cell contains approximately 270 million hemoglobin molecules. The cell membrane is composed of proteins and lipids, and this structure provides properties essential for physiological cell function such as deformability and stability of the blood cell while traversing the circulatory system and specifically the capillary network.

In humans, mature red blood cells are flexible biconcave disks. They lack a cell nucleus (which is expelled during development) and organelles, to accommodate maximum space for hemoglobin; they can be viewed as sacks of hemoglobin, with a plasma membrane as the sack. Approximately 2.4 million new erythrocytes are produced per second in human adults. The cells develop in the bone marrow and circulate for about 100–120 days in the body before their components are recycled by macrophages. Each circulation takes about 60 seconds (one minute). Approximately 84% of the cells in the human body are the 20–30 trillion red blood cells. Nearly half of the blood's volume (40% to 45%) is red blood cells.

Packed red blood cells are red blood cells that have been donated, processed, and stored in a blood bank for blood transfusion.

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