What type of tissue is blood? - ✔️✔️Connective tissue
What does blood consist of (4 things)? - ✔️✔️-Plasma: 46-63%
-Formed elements: 37-54%, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets
What happens when blood is spun at a fast rate in a centrifuge? - ✔️✔️Red blood cells
collect at the bottom, a Buffy coat of white blood cells collects in the middle, and the
fluid blood plasma collects at the top
What is the purpose of blood? - ✔️✔️-Transport medium which carries materials
through out the body through the vasculature system powered by the heart
-Regulation of pH, osmolarity, temperature (38 degrees C), and fluid loss from injury
-Protection
What is hematocrit? - ✔️✔️The packed cell volume/ proportion (percentage) of whole
blood volume that is made up of red blood cells
What are the normal hematocrit values for men and women? Why is it higher for men? -
✔️✔️Men: 40-50%
Women: 36-44%
Higher for men because they have higher levels of testosterone, which activates EPO
hormone, which makes RBCs
What is a blood smear used for? - ✔️✔️To prepare a slide blood can be viewed under
a microscope
What are platelets? - ✔️✔️Cell fragments that originate from a type of leukocyte
(megakaryocyte)
What is the typical composition of blood plasma? - ✔️✔️92% water, 7% proteins, 1%
other solutes
What types of proteins are found in blood plasma (4)? What roles do they play? -
✔️✔️Albumin: regulates water movement between the blood and interstitial fluid at the
capillary level
-Globulins: transport lipids and ions, act as antibodies that immobilize pathogens
-FIbrinogen: Helps with blood clotting
-Regulatory proteins: enzymes, proenzymes, and hormones
What solutes are found in blood plasma (5)? What roles do they play? - ✔️✔️-
Electrolytes: establish and maintain membrane potentials, pH, and osmosis
, -Nutrients: energy source
-Respiratory gases: Oxygen and CO2
-Wastes: urea, biliruben
-Regulatory substances: hormones, chemical signals
Define homeostasis as it relates to blood plasma. - ✔️✔️Keeping many of the
constituents of blood plasma within narrow limits
What are erythrocytes? What is their basic structure? - ✔️✔️Red blood cells,
small/biconcave disks with flattened area in center
Does an RBC have a nucleus or organelles? What does this allow them to
contain/specialize in? - ✔️✔️No, RBCs are anuclear and lack organelles. This allows
them to contain hemoglobin and therefore specialize in oxygen transport. This also
limits their ability to synthesize proteins.
What is the role of cytoskeletal proteins (specrtin) in RBCs? Why is this so important? -
✔️✔️They allow RBCs to assume the biconcave shape. This allows for more surface
area than a normal sphere has, thus allowing maximum oxygen transportation both into
and out of the RBC.
Explain the basic structure and conformation of hemoglobin. - ✔️✔️Hemoglobin is
composed of 4 polypeptide globin chains, 2 alpha chains and 2 beta chains. Each has a
tertiary, 3D folded structure/conformation. Each chain is associated together to produce
the complicated Quaternary structure.
Explain the composition of a globin chain. - ✔️✔️Each globin chain has their own heme
portion. Heme is a ringed molecule with an iron ion in the center
Why is the iron in a heme important? - ✔️✔️The iron binds reversibly with oxygen,
which allows for oxygen transport.
How many molecular oxygens can a hemoglobin molecule transport? - ✔️✔️4
Explain how carbon monoxide interferes with hemoglobin's transport of oxygen. -
✔️✔️CO displaces O2 from heme because it has 200 times more affinity (binds more
tightly). It binds to hemoglobin to form carboxyhemoglobin, HBCO, which is a stable
compound, so it does not usually revert to regular hemoglobin. Therefore O2 cannot be
transported to tissues.
How is carbon monoxide produced? Why is it so dangerous? - ✔️✔️CO is produced
whenever fossil fuels are burned. It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and non irritating,
so it is very difficult to detect. Also, it does not change the amount of oxygen in the
blood, so the body cannot sense that anything is wrong.