BLOOD COMPONENTS

Within seconds blood rushes through a well oiled machine that is the body and concentrates back to the heart awaiting yet another race! Fascinating! though, why is it so important? Let us take a look at what this oil to the body contains. With more than half of the blood made up of plasma, it is varied in its contents from the solid compact cells, proteins and fragments to the intangible electrolytes all playing different roles to maintain a state we all have sung long enough- homeostasis. Deep in the divisions we have up to 92% of the plasma itself being purely water,1% electrolytes and the remaining 6% plasma proteins.

The blood cells are a distinct class of blood components with their percentages slightly differing among themselves before we do a general comparison to other collective components. The red blood cells, white blood cells and the platelets are the known blood cells. Red blood cells function to: 1) transport oxygen, 2)transport carbon dioxide, 3) bear the antigens that are core for blood group determination to facilitate blood transfusion- just to mention a few. The white blood cells on the other hand function to fight foreign substances introduced into the body through various injurious or medical procedures. platelets are the clotting facilitators in the blood as a system and are needed to form static thrombi in the sites of vessel injury.

The blood plasma proteins and electrolytes function to maintain a constant pressure across the blood vessels. These aid in coordinating the volume of blood in the vessels at different sites and in different situations.