RIDDLE:RIDDLE:

I am a vessel and a stone, When I am hot my temper is known, I have my own money as well as a bank, If I take a bath the devil you can thank, I have no mercy when I am cold, If I am bad ill will shall unfold, I can be thirsty and have shot many eyes, In the dead of night as the curdling hound cries.

What am I?

Answer: Blood

What is the Significance What is the Significance of Blood?of Blood?

Blood literally supplies the very materials that maintain life. Flowing through the arteries and veins, blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body and returns waste materials to be expelled from the body.

BLOODBLOOD

Before it flows through our veins and arteries, blood must be created.

How does this happen and what is in our blood?

What is Blood?What is Blood?

Blood is a mixture of cells and watery liquid, called plasma that the cells float in.

It also contains other things like nutrients (such as sugar), hormones, clotting agents, and waste products to be flushed out of the body.

PLASMAPLASMA Is a clear, straw-colored

liquid that carries the blood cells and various hormones, nutrients, and so on through the body

It makes up a little more than half of the total blood volume.

Plasma is about 90 percent water.

The rest comprises various kinds of protein molecules, including enzymes, clotting agents, immunoglobulin (part of the immune system), and proteins that carry hormones, vitamins, cholesterol, and other things the body needs.

Plasma also contains sugar (glucose) and electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and calcium,

3 Kinds of Cells in 3 Kinds of Cells in the Bloodthe Blood

1. Red blood cells (RBC): carry oxygen from the lungs throughout the body

2. White blood cells: help fight infection (immune response)

3. Platelets: help in clotting

RED BLOOD CELLSRED BLOOD CELLS Also called

erythrocytes

Most numerous making up 40-45

percent of one's blood

Shaped like tiny doughnuts with an indentation in the center instead of a hole

Contains a special molecule called hemoglobin Carries the oxygen The hemoglobin

molecules loosely bind with oxygen

Each hemoglobin molecule carries four molecules of oxygen.

What makes blood red? The iron in hemoglobin

WHITE BLOOD CELLSWHITE BLOOD CELLS Also called leukocytes The body's mobile warriors in the battle against infection

and invasion.

There are three types of white blood cell: granulocytes, lymphocytes, and monocytes.

White Blood Cell

Blood Vessel Wall

PLATELETSPLATELETS Also called thrombocytes help blood to clot In their "resting" state, platelets look like two plates stuck

together When "activated" and helping to form a clot, they change

shape and look like tiny roundish blobs with tentacles. Smallest kind of blood cell.

“Activated” Platelets

“Resting” Platelets

RBC

CLOTTINGCLOTTING Bleeding occurs: platelets clump together to help

form a clot.

Also, when they are exposed to air, platelets start breaking down and release a substance into the bloodstream.

This substance starts a chain of chemical events that eventually causes a protein in the blood, to turn into a different substance, which forms long threads. These threads tangle up red blood cells to help form a clot, or scab, over the wound.

BLOOD CLOTSBLOOD CLOTS A scab is an external

blood clot that we can easily see

Internal blood clots A bruise

Both scabs and bruises are clots that lead to healing

Some clots can be extremely dangerous

A blood clot that forms inside of a blood vessel can be deadly because it blocks the flow of blood, cutting off the supply of oxygen.

A stroke is the result of a clot in an artery of the brain.

If the oxygen flow is broken, paralysis, brain damage, loss of sensory perceptions, or even death may occur.

How is Blood Produced?How is Blood Produced? Blood cells are produced in the bone marrow Bone marrow is a jellylike substance inside the bones that is

composed of, among other things, fat, blood, and special cells that turn into the various kinds of blood cells.

In children, the marrow of most of the bones produces blood.

But in adults, only the marrow of certain bones -- the spine, ribs, pelvis, and some others -- continues to make blood.

How is Blood Produced?How is Blood Produced? As the blood cells develop from the stem cells in the

marrow, they seep into the blood that passes through the bones and on into the bloodstream.

Blood cells "life spans“: Red blood cells last about 120 days Platelets about 10 days White blood cells can last anywhere from days to years.

The body has a feedback system that tells it when to make new red blood cells. If bodily oxygen levels are low (as they would be if there

are too few red blood cells circulating), the kidneys produce a hormone called erythropoietin, which stimulates the stem cells in the marrow to produce more red blood cells

BLOOD TYPESBLOOD TYPES Blood transfusions were not possible until Karl Landsteiner

first identified in 1901 the major human blood groups O, A, B, and AB -- in a series of experiments

The ABO blood groups are defined by specific inherited molecules, or antigens, that are present on the surface of red blood cells. One inherits either A or B antigens (group A or B), both A

and B antigens (group AB), or neither antigen (group O). a person develops a natural immunity, or antibody, in

their plasma to the ABO antigens that are absent on their own red cells.

Type A person has anti-B antibodies, and group O person has both anti-A and anti-B antibodies.

Blood TypesBlood Types The most common blood types in the U.S. are A+ and

O+ -- about 72 percent of the population has one or the other. AB- is the rarest blood type (1 percent of the population).

What blood type is called the universal donor? O- blood group The red blood cells of a universal blood donor may

be transfused to anyone regardless of their blood type.

Why is type O blood considered the universal donor? Because type O blood does not have any antigens

on the cells surface.

Frequency of Blood TypesFrequency of Blood Types

O+ 1 person in 3

O- 1 person in 15 

A+ 1 person in 3

A- 1 person in 16

B+ 1 person in 12

B- 1 person in 67

AB+ 1 person in 29 

AB- 1 person in 167 

Blood TransfusionsBlood Transfusions What would happen if type A blood is mistakenly

transfused to a group O recipient?

the anti-A antibody in the recipient's plasma destroys the transfused group A cells and a serious transfusion reaction occurs.

Why?

Because group O has anti-A as well as anti-B antibodies, group O recipients can only accept blood from group O donors. Conversely, group AB recipients can receive blood from all groups.

Rh FactorRh Factor

The Rh factor: another antigens on the red cell surface

A person is defined as either Rh positive or Rh negative depending on the presence of the primary Rh antigen on the red cell.

A person only develops anti-Rh after exposure to Rh-positive red cells through transfusion or pregnancy.

Modern blood-banking technology uses highly sensitive tests to properly identify and match blood between donor and recipient.

Examples of Blood Use

Average # Of Units Required

Automobile Accident 50 units of blood

Heart Surgery 6 units of blood6 units of platelets

Organ Transplant 40 units of blood30 units of platelets20 bags of cryoprecipitate25 units of fresh frozen plasma

Bone Marrow Transplant

120 units of platelets20 units of blood

Burn 20 units of platelets

NOTE: One unit of blood is roughly the equivalent of one pint. On average an adult has approximately seven to nine units of blood.

Sickle Cell AnemiaSickle Cell Anemia

Symptoms: Abdominal pain, frequent infections, low red cell count, many serious complications

Shape of red cells changes and causes O2 stress. Cells become sharp and sticky clogging capillaries and break apart

MalariaMalaria Caused by infection though mosquito bite by Plasmodium single celled organisms that feeds on the hemoglobin protein in RBC.

If the RBC is sickled then the parasite starves to death and dies.

Plasmodium must live in both species to complete its life cycle.