BLOOD & ITS COMPONENT

Self-Learning Kit
Biology 2: Comparative Anatomy & Physiology

Prepared By:
Ferly J. Lovete
Objectives:
1. Identify the different composition of blood and its function.
2. Discuss the characteristics of blood cells.
3. Trace the differentiation of blood cells from pluripotent stem cells
4. Trace and explain the blood clotting process

DEFINITION OF TERMS:
CLOT – a sticky lump/mass of thickened liquid, especially blood.
FIBRIN – an insoluble fibrous protein that is produced in the liver from the soluble
protein fibrinogen and helps in blood clotting. It forms a network of fibers in
which blood cells become trapped, thus producing a clot.
FIBRINOGEN- a soluble protein present in the blood that is activated by Thrombin to
form fibrin. It is a clotting factor and is require to prevent major blood loss.
INTERSTITIAL FLUID – fluid lying between group of cells or tissues.
MACROPHAGE – large cell that is present in blood, lymph, and connective tissues,
removing waste products, harmful microorganisms and foreign material from
the bloodstream
PLASMA – the liquid portion of the blood, contains different types of proteins, ions,
metabolites, wastes, and hormones.
PLURIPOTENT CELLS – a cell within bone marrow that is a progenitor for any kind of
blood cell.
PROTHROMBIN – a plasma protein that is converted to thrombin during blood clotting.
SCAB – crust over healing wound. A hard crust of dried blood, serum or pus that forms
over a wound during healing.
THROMBIN – blood enzyme that causes clotting by catalyzing the conversion of
fibrinogen to fibrin.
THROMBOPLASTIN – enzyme in blood platelets that converts prothrombin to thrombin.

FUNCTIONS OF BLOOD:
1. Supply oxygen to tissues
2. Supply nutrients such as glucose, amino acids and fatty acids to tissues.
3. Removal of wastes such as carbon dioxide, urea and lactic acid from tissues.
4. Immunological functions, including circulation of WBC and detection of
foreign material by antibodies
5. Messenger functions, including transport of hormones and signaling of tissue.
6. Coagulation part of body’s self-repair mechanism
7. Regulation of core body temperature
8. Regulation of body pH and ion concentrations

What percent of your body is blood? Answer: 8%

How much blood do we contain? Answer: on average 4 – 6 litters. We can contain about
a pint of blood for every 15 pounds of body weight.
 Blood is composed of fluid plasma and several different kinds of cells
that circulate within the fluid. Blood platelets are included, but they are
not complete cells; rather fragments of cells that reside in the bone
marrow.
what’s in
digested food
red blood cells white blood cells

oxygen waste (urea)

carbon dioxide platelets

plasma hormones

A. The BLOOD PLASMA

It is the matrix in which blood cells and platelets are suspended.
Interstitial (extracellular) fluids originate from the fluid present
in plasma.
PLASMA contains the following solutes:
1. METABOLITES, WASTES and HORMONES
Dissolved within the plasma are all metabolites used by cells,
including glucose, amino acids, and vitamins. Also dissolved
in the plasma are hormones that regulate cellular activities,
wastes such as nitrogen compounds, and Carbon dioxide
produced by metabolizing cells. CO2 is carried in the blood as
bicarbonate because free carbon dioxide would decrease
blood pH.
2. IONS
Like the water of the seas in which life arose, blood plasma is
a dilute salt solution. The predominant plasma ions are
sodium, chloride, and bicarbonate ions. In addition, there
are trace amounts of other ions such as calcium, magnesium,
copper, potassium, and zinc. The composition of the plasma,
therefore, is similar to seawater, but plasma has a lower
total ion concentration than that of present-day seawater.
 3. PROTEINS
The liver produces most of the plasma proteins, including
ALBUMIN, which comprises most of the plasma protein;
the alpha (α) and beta (β) GLOBULINS, which serve as
carriers of lipids and steroid hormones; and FIBRINOGEN,
which is required for blood clotting. Following an injury of
a blood vessel, platelets release clotting factors (proteins)
into the blood. Blood plasma which has had fibrinogen
removed is called SERUM.

A straw-coloured
liquid that carries
the cells and the
platelets which
help blood clot.

• Plasma is the liquid component of the blood.

• Plasma is about 60 % of a volume of blood; cells and
fragments are 40%.
• Plasma has 90% water and 10% dissolved materials including:
proteins, glucose, ions, hormones, and gases.
• It acts as a buffer, maintaining pH near 7.4.
• Plasma contains nutrients, wastes, salts, proteins, etc.
• Proteins in the blood aid in transport of large molecules such
as cholesterol.
 B. The BLOOD CELLS
Types of Blood Cells
Blood Cell Life Span in Blood Function
Erythrocyte 120 days O2 and CO2 transport
Neutrophil 7 hours Immune defenses
Eosinophil Unknown Defense against
parasites
Basophil Unkown Inflammatory
response
Monocyte 3 days Immune surveillance
(precursor of tissue
macrophage)
B Lymphocyte Unkown Antibody production
(precursor of plasma
cells)
T Lymphocyte Unknown Cellular immune
response
Platelet 7-8 days Blood clotting
Blood cells are formed in the bone marrow.
 C. BLOOD CELL FORMATION

C.1 Erythrocytes (Red Blood Cells)

Characteristics:
 Biconcave disks
 No nucleus
 Contain the iron based pigment hemoglobin which binds with
oxygen to transport it
 5billon/1mL of blood (most numerous)
 Very small – the average size is 7.2 micrometers in diameter.
 In vertebrates, hemoglobin is found only in erythrocytes. In
invertebrates, the oxygen is also present in plasma.
C.1 Erythrocytes (Red Blood Cells)

Formation:
Erythrocytes develop from unspecialized cells, called STEM CELLS.
When plasma oxygen levels decrease, the kidney converts a plasma
protein into the hormone, erythropoietin. Erythropoietin then stimulates
the production of erythrocytes in bone marrow through the process called
ERYTHROPOIESIS. In mammals, maturing erythrocytes lose their nuclei.
This is different from the mature erythrocytes of all other vertebrates,
which remain nucleated. As mammalian erythrocytes age, they removed
from the blood by phagocytic cells of the spleen, bone marrow and liver.
Balancing this loss, new erythrocytes are constantly formed in the bone
marrow.

C.2 Leukocytes (White Blood Cells)

Characteristics:
 No definite shape.
 Have nucleus
 Protect body against infection
 Contains 7,000/1mL of blood
 Number increase if infection is present
 Larger than RBC
C.2 Leukocytes (White Blood Cells)
Characteristics:
 Less than 1% of the cells in human blood
 It is not confined to the blood but can migrate out of
capillaries into the interstitial (tissue) fluid.
 The role of a macrophage is to phagocytize (engulf and then
digest) cellular debris and pathogens
 When a cell undergoes apoptosis – programmed cell death,
WBC called macrophages consumed cell debris.

 Types:
GRANULAR LEUKOCYTES – named according to the staining
properties of granules in their cytoplasm.
Includes: neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils
NONGRANULAR LEUKOCYTES
Includes : monocytes and lymphocytes
 Types of WBC:
MONOCYTES – largest
NEUTROPHILS – most numerous
LYMPHOCYTES – are produced by the lymph tissue
BASOPHILS – release histamines
C.3 Thrombocytes (Platelets)
Characteristics:
 RBC fragments
 Irregularly shaped
 No nucleus
 150,000 – 4000,000/1 mL
 Have sticky surface
 Responsible for blood clotting (injury healing)

Formation:
MEGAKARYOCYTES are large cells present in the bone marrow.
Pieces of cytoplasm are pinched off from the megakaryocytes
and become PLATELETS.
 Fibr
BLOOD CLOTTING PROCESS:
in
(1) Blood vessel is
Injured. Vessel is
damaged exposing
surrounding tissue
to blood.

(2) Platelets adhere

and become sticky
forming a plug.
Platelets clump at
the site and produce
a substance that
produces strands
of fibrin.

(3) Fibrin strands help to clog the opening or hole in the vessel.
(4) Cascade of enzymatic reactions is triggered by platelets, plasma
factors, and damaged tissue.
 (5) Threads of fibrin trap
erythrocytes and form a clot.
 When a blood vessel
in the body is damaged
platelets clump at the
site of the puncture
and partially seal the
leak
 Platelets and the injured
tissues release a clotting
factor called Thrombopplastin,
prothrombin
activator, that converts
prothrombin to thrombin
 Thrombin acts as an
enzyme that severs two
short amino acid chains
from each fibrinogen
molecule
 These activated
fragments then join
forming long threads
of fibrin that wind around the
platelet plug in the damaged area
of the blood vessel and provide
the framework for the clot
 If blood is allowed to clot in a test
tube, a yellowish fluid develops
above the clotted material, called serum
 Contains all the components of plasma, except fibrinogen
 Hemophilia is a well-known, inherited clotting disorder
 Due to the absence of a particular clotting factor, the slightest bump
can cause internal bleeding
Blood Clotting is needed to stop bleeding (hemorrhage)

Summary of Blood Clotting:

 BLOOD TYPES

 ABO Blood Groups:

 Red blood cell membranes may contain antigens – a substance
that triggers an immune response in blood that does not contain the
same antigen.
 Blood plasma may contain antibodies, specialized proteins that bind
to non-self antigens to destroy them.
 It is important to prevent the mixing of red cells that contain an
antigen with plasma that contains the corresponding antibody.

Antig
ens
 BLOOD TYPES
Type Antigen Antibody Donate to Receive
from
A A Anti-B A or AB A or O
B B Anti-A B or AB B or O
AB A+B Neither AB Universal
Receiver
O none Both Universal O
Donor

Blood Transfusion
 The process of transferring blood or blood-based products
from one person into the circulatory system of another
 For blood loss due to trauma, surgery, or severe anemia
 Can be life-saving
 What Happens When Mixing Wrong Blood
Type?
 Antibodies in blood will attack the foreign blood.
 They will cause the blood cells to clump…agglutination.
 Will stop the blood from moving.
 Circulatory system shuts down

 Blood Type and Rh factor?

 An additional antigen found on the surface of red blood cells.
 Rh + Means that the person carries the antigen.
 Rh - Means that the person DOES NOT carry the antigen.
 The Rh, or rhesus, factor
Was discovered in 1940
when testing blood
with a rhesus monkey.
The Rh system was
named after rhesus
monkeys, since they
were initially used in
the research to make the antiserum for typing blood samples.

Percentage of the Population with Each Blood Type

Blood Type Rh+ Rh-
o 38.5% 6.5%
A 34.3% 5.7%
B 8.6% 1.4%
AB 4.3% 0.7%
 How will the Rh factor affects pregnancy?

Erythroblastosis Fetalis (a serious blood disease of fetuses and

newborn babies, in which the antibodies produced by an Rh negative mother
destroy the red blood cells of an Rh positive fetus)
 During pregnancy, if the mother is Rh-negative and the father is
Rh-positive, the child may be Rh-positive
 Rh-positive red blood cells may begin leaking across the placenta
into the mother’s cardiovascular system, since placental tissues
normally break down before and at birth
 The mother produces anti-Rh antibodies, which may cross the
placenta and destroy the child’s red blood cells during a
subsequent pregnancy

Bonus INFORMATION:
Adult stem cells include blood stem cells
 A stem cell is a cell that is capable of becoming different types of
cells, while embryonic stem cells possess the ability to become
virtually any cell type, adult stem cells are not quite as versatile
because they can become only specific type of cell
 CONTINUATION….
 Adult stem cells have been identified in
many tissues, including the liver, skin,
muscle, and even within the brain, but the
richest source is in the red bone marrow
 Adult stem cells from bone marrow are
used to treat many white blood cell and
immune system disorders, including
leukemia, certain blood cancers, and
anemia
 Like any organ transplant, a bone marrow
transplant poses the risk of rejection

Hematopoietic
cells (adult stem
cells in red bone
marrow) produce
cells that become
the various types
of blood cells.
 TEST YOURSELF!
Write only the letter of the correct answer in a ¼ sheet of paper.
1. Which of the following makes up the greatest percentage of human
plasma?
a. Albumin c. Water
b. Red blood cells d. White blood cells
2. Which cell is NOT the same type as the other?
a. Erythrocytes c. Lymphocytes
b. Neutrophils d. Eosinophils
3. Which cell is NOT involved with the defense response?
a. Monocytes c. Lymphocytes
b. Neutrophils d. Erythrocytes
4. Which cell is the most abundant in the human body and does NOT have a
nucleus when mature?
a. Lymphocytes c. platelets
b. Erythrocytes d. Eosinophils
5. Which cell produces the fibrin used in blood clots?
a. Erythrocytes c. Platelets
b. Basophils d. Eosinophils
6. Most of the oxygen in the blood is transported by ____
a. Plasma c. Platelets
b. Serum d. Hemoglobin
7. Red blood cells originate in the _____
a. Erythrocytes c. Platelets
b. Stem cells d. Eosinophils
8. Megakaryocytes fragment to produce ______
a. Red blood cells c. Platelets
b. Lymphocytes d. Eosinophils
9. Type A blood will NOT agglutinate when mixed with _____.
a. Type A blood c. Type O blood
b. Type B blood d. both Type A & B blood
10. In the Rh disease _____
a. The mother must be positive and her first & second baby is positive
b. The mother must be negative and her first & second baby is positive
c. The mother must be negative and her first & second baby is negative
d. The mother must be positive and her first & second baby is negative
11. If you are blood type A,
a. You carry antibodies for type B blood
b. You carry markers for type B blood
c. You can donate blood to a person with type O blood
d. You can receive blood from a person with type AB blood