BLOOD

A speck of blood the size of this letter

“o” contains 5,000,000 red cells, 300,000 platelets

and 7,000 white cells. Red cells alone, if removed

from a single person and laid side by side, would

carpet an area of 3,500 square yards.

 Composition
1. Cells – rbc, wbc, platelets
2. Fibers – fibrinogen to fibrin
3. Groung substance - plasma
 Erythrocytes
• Anucleate , biconcave, 7.5um diameter
• No other organelles
• Most prevalent in peripheral blood
• 33% hemoglobin
• Spectrin – cytoskeleton
• Life span – 120 days
• Abnormalities
 Leucocytes
• Granulocytes • Agranulocytes
1. Neutrophil 1. Lymphocytes
2. Eosinophil 2. Monocytes
3. Basophil No specific granules
Granules
1. Specific
2. azurophile
 Neutrophil
• 60-70% of wbc
• 12-15 um
• 2-5 lobes
• Life span 1-4 days
 Granules
1. Azurophilic granules
- stain with azure dye ; diagnostic
- 20% of granule population
- visible in lilght microscope
2. Specific granule
- 80% of granule population
- not visible in light microscope
 Eosinophil
• 2-4% of wbc
• Bilobed nucleus
• 12-15 um
• Large specific granules
• Allergic and parasitic infection
 Basophil
• < 1% of wbc
• Irregular lobed nucleus
• Metachromatic specific granules
• Supplement to mast cells
• Inflammatory response
 Lymphocyte
• Most common agranulocyte
• Not confined to peripheral blood
• 5-18um diameter
• No specific granule
• Converts to plasma cell
• Key to immune system
 Monocyte
• Oval, kidney, horse-shoe shaped nucleus
• 12-18 um diameter
• No specific granules
• Precursor to macrophage
 Platelets
• Non-nucleated disk like fragment
• 2-4 um
• Blood clotting
• 200,000-400,000 per microliter
• 10 day life span
 Platelet function
1. Primary aggregation – form platelet plug
2. Secondary aggregation
3. Blood coagulation – formation of fibrin to
form a blood clot
4. Clot retraction
5. Clot removal