Red Blood Cells

Red Blood cells are present in the blood along with white blood cells and platelets. Every blood cell has a distinct function. Red Blood cells have the function of carrying oxygen from the heart to different parts of the body and vice versa that is carrying carbon dioxide from various organs to the heart. It is a very crucial part of our body and a slight dysfunction of red blood cells can create many problems in the human body. Red Blood cells are also called RBCs, erythrocytes or haematids. Vertebrates and mammals all have red blood cells in their blood and when the body suffers a disorder these are the cells, which bear the mark first. Though we know that these cells are present in the blood and these are the ones, which make the blood appear red.

Why do Red Blood Cells appear red ?

Now this is interesting when we probe deeper into the details of Red Blood Cells because this process brings out some such topics that would educate us more about the mechanisms of an animal body. So the question here is why red blood cells are red? They are red because red blood cells consist of a chemical protein called hemoglobin, which is red in color, which makes the red blood cells appear red, and in turn the blood of an animal appears red. If we go into more details we would find out that hemoglobin is the protein which not only imparts the color but it is the protein that helps in carrying oxygen to and fro from the organs to the heart and vice versa. The oxygen molecules in our heart attach themselves to the hemoglobin and thus are transported to the various organs of the body and then when the hemoglobin has given away all the oxygen particles, the empty hemoglobin particle is taken over by carbon dioxide on its way back to the heart.

Description and Creation of Red Blood Cells

The diameter of a red blood cell is approximately 6 to 8microns and its thickness is about 1.5 to 1.9 microns. The production rate of red blood cells per day is approximately 200 billion and the life span of a red blood cell is approximately 120 to 125 days. The count of red blood cells varies with the sex of the individual. In case of a woman the average count of red blood cell is 4.2 to 6.1 million cells per microliter and in case of men it is approximately 4.7 to 6.1 million cells per microliter. Red blood cells are much smaller than the other cells in the human body and each red blood cell contains approximately 270 million hemoglobin molecules and each carries four groups of heme.

Erthropoiesis is the process of creation of red blood cells in human body in which red blood cells are constantly produced in the red bone marrow of large bones and the rate of production per second is approximately 2 million. After the red blood cells are released by the bone marrow in the blood, these cells are known as reticulocytes, which have approximately one percent of circulating blood cells. After the process of creation of red blood cells they continue to mature and as they mature their plasma membrane keeps on undergoing change so that the phagocytes can identify the worn out red blood cell, which would result into phagocytosis. The hemoglobin particles are further broken down to iron and biliverdin. The latter changes into bilirubin, which along with the iron particle is released into the plasma and the iron particle is again circulated with the help of a carrier protein, called transferring. Thus the life cycle of a red blood cell comes to an end by approximately 120 days.

Red Blood Cells: Markers of Health

Red Blood cells can act as markers of health as many disorders can be rooted in the malfunctioning of the red blood cells, its absence or presence of it. Anemia is one of the most common blood related diseases, which is caused by the deficiency of iron, which in turn results into the insufficiency of hemoglobin. Thalassemia is also a disease against which the whole world is trying to fight. It is a genetic disease, which is caused due to the production of abnormal ratio of hemoglobin subunits. Hemolysis is another disease in which the red blood cells degenerate more than they should.

Red blood cells are an important part of the body mechanism and thus care should be taken so as to increase the count of red blood cells by the intake of iron rich food products.