The document summarizes key information about the components and functions of blood. It describes the three main components of blood as plasma, buffy coat, and erythrocytes. Plasma is the liquid portion that transports cells, nutrients, waste, etc. The buffy coat contains white blood cells and platelets. Erythrocytes are red blood cells that contain hemoglobin and transport oxygen and carbon dioxide. The functions of blood include distribution of materials, regulation of pH and temperature, and protection from infection and blood loss. Anemias occur when the blood has a low oxygen-carrying capacity due to issues like blood loss, lack of nutrients, or bone marrow disorders.

1. Chapter 17 Blood
Q and A style
Part 1

2. List and describe the 3 main components of
blood.
• Plasma
• 55% of whole blood
• Least dense component of whole blood
• Straw-colored, sticky fluid
• Buffy coat
• Leukocytes (white blood cells or WBC) and platelets
• Less than 1% of whole blood
• Erythrocytes (red blood cells or RBC)
• 45% of whole blood
• This portion is referred to as the hematocrit
• most dense portion of the whole blood
The buffy coat and
hematocrit are grouped
together and called the
formed elements

3. What part of a centrifuged sample of whole
blood is the most dense?
• The hematocrit or erythrocytes is the most dense component.

4. Describe the physical characteristics of blood.
• Sticky, opaque fluid with a metallic taste
• Tastes salty
• Color depends of oxygen content
• Scarlet (high oxygen content) to dark red (oxygen poor)
• More dense than water
• Approximately 5 times for viscous
• pH between 7.35 to 7.45
Opaque - not able to be seen through; not
transparent.
viscous - having a thick, sticky consistency
between solid and liquid; having a high
viscosity

5. What is the average pH of blood.
• Blood pH ranges from 7.35 to 7.45.
• pH scale review
• Base 10 scale
• Therefore pH of 5 is 10 time more acidic than a pH of 6 or a 100 times more
acidic than a pH of 7.

6. How much blood is in males? Females?
• Males have 5-6 liters while females typically have 4-5 liters of blood.
• Measurements review:
• If 3.8 liters equals 1 gallon, how many gallons of blood does a male
have? Female?

7. What are the 3 basic categories of blood
function?
• Distribution
• Regulation
• Protection

8. Give 3 examples of distribution functions of
blood.
• Blood delivers oxygen from the lungs and nutrients from the digestive
tract to all of the body cells.
• Body cells are also called somatic cells.
• Blood transports metabolic waste from cells to elimination sites, such
as
• Lungs to eliminate or get rid of carbon dioxide
• Kidneys to get rid of nitrogenous wastes in urine
• Blood transports hormones from the endocrine organs to their target
organs
• The endocrine system refers to the collection of glands in the body that
secrete hormones directly into the circulatory system to be carried towards a
distant target organ.

9. Give 3 examples of regulatory functions of
blood.
• The blood maintains the appropriate body temperature.
• Does this by distributing heat throughout the body and to the surface of the
skin to encourage heat loss
• This process is referred to evaporative cooling
• Blood maintains normal pH in body tissues.
• Many blood proteins and other bloodborne solutes (materials made in the
blood) act as buffers.
• Buffers prevent excessive or abrupt changes in the blood pH that could harm the cells
• Blood acts a reservoir of alkaline (basic or opposite of acidic) reserve of bicarbonate ions.
• Blood maintains adequate fluid volume in the circulatory system.
• Blood proteins prevent excessive fluid loss from the blood stream into tissue
spaces.

10. Give 2 protective functions of blood.
• Blood prevents blood loss, meaning blood will repair damage to its
vessels.
• Platelets and plasma proteins will start the clotting process when vessel
damage occurs, which reduces the loss of blood.
• Blood prevents infection.
• Antibodies, complement proteins (proteins that assist the antibodies in their
function), and leukocytes (white blood cells or WBC) in the blood help defend
the body against bacteria, viruses, and other foreign invaders.

11. What makes up plasma?
• Plasma is approximately 90% water
• The most abundant solute are electrolytes which help maintain
osmotic pressure and pH
• Ex. Sodium, potassium, calcium, chloride, phosphate, bicarbonate
• Plasma proteins
• Albumin, globulins, and fibrogen
• Nonprotein nitrogenous substances
• Organic nutrients, respiratory gases (mostly oxygen and carbon dioxide), and
hormones

12. What are the functions of plasma?
• The main job of the plasma is to transport blood cells throughout
your body along with nutrients, waste products, antibodies, clotting
proteins, chemical messengers such as hormones, and proteins that
help maintain the body's fluid balance.
• The materials that are transported and/or dissolved in the plasma
have a wide variety of functions!

13. What is hematocrit? What is it normal value?
• Hematocrit is the percentage of erythrocytes (RBC) in blood.
• Normal values for men is 47% and women 42% (with a range of 5% in
each)

14. Are plasma proteins used as fuel? Explain
your answer.
• No! Plasma proteins help maintain osmotic pressure and maintain
water balance in the blood and tissues.
• All the proteins have other functions as well, such as transporting
other substances, enzymatic (helping a chemical reaction happen or
“catalyst”), and messaging.
• Albumin is the most abundant plasma protein
• Produced by the liver
• Main contributor to maintain osmotic pressure

15. What are the formed elements of the blood?
• The formed elements of blood are the buffy coat (WBCs and
platelets) and erythrocytes (RBCs)

16. Describe the structure of erythrocytes.
• Small cells without a nucleus
• Biconcave discs
• Flattened discs with depressed centers
• Causes them to look lighter in color in the middle
• Basically little bags of hemoglobin
• Lacking almost all organelles!

17. Describe the function of erythrocytes.
• Erythrocytes (RBCs or red blood cells) transport respiratory gases
• Oxygen and carbon dioxide

18. What are the components of hemoglobin?
• Hemoglobin is basically made of protein called globin and a red
pigment called heme.
Don’t worry about the details of globin alpha, beta, and gamma 

19. Describe oxyhemoglobin, deoxyhemoglobin,
and carbominohemoglobin.
• Oxyhemoglobin- when oxygen combines with hemoglobin of RBCs in
the lungs and combines with iron, the hemoglobin protein changes
shape and is then called oxyhemoglobin.
• Deoxyhemoglobin- in the body tissues, oxygen detaches from iron
and the hemoglobin returns to its original shape. However, the
reduced hemoglobin (hemoglobin that lost oxygen) turns dark red and
is called deoxyhemoglobin.
• Carbaminohemoglobin- when hemoglobin is in its reduced state (just
lost oxygen “deoxyhemoglobin”) carbon dioxide binds with the amino
acids in the hemoglobin (not iron like oxygen) and is called
carbaminohemoglobin.

20. What is the process of blood cell formation
called?
• Blood cell formation is called hematopoiesis and occurs in the red
bone marrow.
Review!
- There are two types of bone marrow – red and yellow
• Some WBCs are produced in the yellow marrow, which gets its color from the high fat
content

21. All formed elements come from what original
cell?
• All the formed elements (RBCs, WBCs, and platelets) all arise from the
hematopoietic stem cell.
• Remember: stem cells are undifferentiated (or no function selected)
precursor (or what comes before) cells
• Hemato- (blood) and -poietic (to make)

22. What is the function of EPO?
• EPO, or the hormone erythropoietin, stimulates or starts the
formation of erythrocytes (RBCs)

23. What triggers EPO formation?
• Reduced numbers of RBCs due to bleeding or excessive RBC
destruction
• Reduced hemoglobin per RBC (usually from iron deficiency)
• Reduced availability of oxygen (such as high altitudes or during
pneumonia)

24. Describe ferritin, hemosidin, and transferrin.
• Free iron ions (Fe+2, Fe+3), or ions that are not bonded to anything is
dangerous. 65% of the iron supply in our bodies is attached to
hemoglobin, but the rest must be bound to something…enter ferritin
and hemosidin.
• Ferritin and hemosidin are protein complexes that store iron.
• In blood, iron is transported while loosely bound to the transport
protein transferrin.
• Developing blood cells take iron from transferrin to form hemoglobin

25. What is the life span of erythrocytes?
• Erythrocytes (red blood cells) have a useful life span of 100 to 120
days.

26. Describe bilirubin and how it is formed.
• When RBCs die, they are broken down by macrophages. The heme, or
red pigment is split from the globin proteins. Iron is removed from
the heme and stored as ferritin or hemosiderin.
• What is leftover of the heme is degraded into bilirubin.
• Bilirubin is a yellow pigment that is released to the blood and binds
to albumin for transport to the liver. The liver turns it into bile.
• Most of the degraded pigment leaves the body in feces.

27. What is an anemia? Give an example and
describe it.
• An anemia is a condition when the blood’s oxygen-carrying capacity is too low
to support normal metabolism. It is a sign of a disorder, not a disease itself. An
anemic person is fatigued, often pale, short of breath, and chilled. Anemias are
caused by blood loss or not enough RBCs produced.
hemorrhagic anemia – blood loss
pernicious anemia- autoimmune disease that destroys the stomach mucosa,
which takes part in the uptake of Vitamin B12, which is needed for RBC
development
Renal anemia- caused by a lack of EPO
Aplastic anemia- caused by the destruction of the red bone marrow from drugs,
radiation, viruses, etc.