What Does a Red Blood Cell Erythrocyte Do In The Body

Red blood cells (also called erythrocytes) give to blood red color. There are so many erythrocytes in the blood – about 25 billion – that our blood looks quite red. These tiny, round and flattened discs simultaneously circulating through our body and were always found in blood vessels.

It is almost impossible to imagine such a large number, but it may help to create idea about it. Every blood cell is so tiny that it can be seen only under a microscope. When you of these microscopically small grains could make a string, it would four times encircled the globe! However, during blood tests are not counted the red blood cells in the whole body, but only in one spatial millimeter of blood.

Although they are very small, together they have a huge surface area. For example, if you them woven into the carpet, its total area will amount to 4,500 square meters. Given that at any moment one quarter of blood is found in the lungs, an area of about 1,100 square meters of red cells is constantly exposed to the air.

When in the bone marrow red blood cell grow and take the form of mature blood cell, it loses its nucleus and contains more hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the red pigment or color. It contains iron in combination with the protein.

What do normal red blood cells look like?

When blood passes through the lungs, oxygen binds with hemoglobin of red blood cells. Red blood cells carries oxygen through the arteries and capillaries to all cells of the body. Carbon dioxide from the cell body goes in the lungs through the veins in the same way, mainly combined with hemoglobin.

Where are formed red blood cells? How long does a red blood cell live? Apparently, the “factory” in which creates such a huge amount of cells – bone marrow – has to have an incredible ability to produce – especially when you take into account that, sooner or later, each of these cells breaks down and replaced by a new one! Because red blood cells live only about four months and then fall apart, mainly in the spleen.

Human bone marrow is adapted to their needs for oxygen. At high altitudes it produces more red blood cells, and at low altitudes less. People who live on the mountain tops may have nearly double the number of red blood cells than people who live on the coast!

The number and size of red blood cells of one living beings depend on its need for oxygen. Worms do not have blood cells. Cold-blooded animals – reptiles – have large and relatively numerous blood cells in their blood. Small, warm-blooded animals, which live in mountainous areas, have the largest number of red blood cells.