 NEED FOR TRANSPORT INSIDE THE BODY :

• Every organ in our body requires the involvement of the circulating body fluids.

• For example :

 The digestive system digests and absorbs nutrients which are needed to be transported to every
body cell.

 The respiratory system draws in air, and the oxygen picked up from it in the lungs has to be
transported to all parts of the body. Similarly, the CO2 collected from the entire body has to be
carried to the lungs for giving out.

 All the extra water, excess salts, and the nitrogenous wastes such as urea have to be removed
from different parts and have to be sent to the excretory system to be thrown out of the body.

 Hormones secreted by the endocrine system have to be carried throughout the body by the
circulating blood to act wherever required, and so on.

• All such functions that need transport are performed by the two circulating fluids — the blood and
the lymph. Besides transport, these fluids have some other functions also.

 FLUIDS IN OUR BODY :

• There are three principal fluids in our body :
• Blood, contained in the heart and in the blood vessels (arteries, veins and capillaries) of the
circulatory system,
• Tissue fluid, occupying spaces between cells in the organs, and
• Lymph, which is contained within lymph vessels and lymphatic organs such as the spleen and the
tonsils.

• Fig. 7.1 shows a diagrammatic representation of the

relationship between blood, tissue fluid and lymph as
they circulate in their respective vessels or spaces
between the cells in different organs.

• It is clear from the diagram that blood in our body

circulates in a closed manner i.e. all the time through
blood vessels. Such a type of blood circulation is called a
closed vascular system.
• As against this, in certain animals such as insects, the
blood mostly flows through open spaces, called an open
blood circulatory system. Their blood flows from the
heart to body tissue spaces without vessels.
• Non-circulating fluids : There are also some other fluids located in particular organs such as
synovial fluid filled in the cavities of skeletal joints, vitreous humour in the eye, etc. They do not
circulate.

 The Blood :
• Never Stationary : Blood is always in motion from the heart to the arteries and back through the
veins.

• Colour : The blood is a somewhat thick fluid, bright red when taken from an artery or dark red
when taken from a vein. [Conventionally, in the diagram, we show the veins in blue — this is just
for contrast; the blood inside the veins is not blue, it is actually dark red].

• Volume : An average adult human contains 5 to 6 litres of blood by volume in his body.

• Taste : saltish. The blood is slightly alkaline with a pH of 7.3 to 7.45 (7 is neutral, neither acidic nor
alkaline).

 FUNCTIONS OF BLOOD :
• The main functions of the blood in our body can be treated under two broad headings:

(A) Transport and (B) Protection.

• TRANSPORT BY BLOOD : (Transport of digested food, oxygen, carbon dioxide, excretory

substances, hormones, body heat).

1. Transport of digested food from the alimentary canal to the tissues. These substances are simple
sugars like glucose, amino acids, vitamins, mineral salts, etc.

2. Transport of oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. It occurs by means of red blood cells in
combination with haemoglobin in the form of an unstable compound oxyhaemoglobin, which on
reaching the tissues breaks up to deliver oxygen.

3. Transport of carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs. It occurs partly in combination with
haemoglobin and partly as solution in blood plasma.

4. Transport of excretory material from the tissues to the liver, kidney or the skin for elimination or
to render them harmless.

5. Distribution of hormones secreted by special glands (endocrine glands) directly into the blood.

6. Distribution of heat : The blood helps in keeping the temperature of the body uniform by
distributing heat.
 PROTECTION BY BLOOD :
• Blood forms a clot wherever there is a cut in a blood vessel. The clot serves to prevent
1. further loss of blood and
2. the entry of disease-causing germs.
• Its white blood corpuscles protect the body from diseases by engulfing bacteria which may have
entered the body.
• It produces antitoxins and antibodies which neutralise the poisonous substances or kill the germs
which enter the body.

 COMPOSITION OF BLOOD :
• The blood consists of :
i) Plasma — fluid part, constitutes 55-60 per cent of blood
ii) Cellular elements - red and white cells, and platelets, 40-45 per cent of blood.

 PLASMA — The liquid portion of blood :

• The plasma is a light-yellow coloured, alkaline liquid.

• It mainly consists of :

Water − 90 - 92%

Proteins − 7 - 8%

Inorganic salt − 1%

Other substances − traces

• The inorganic salts include mainly sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate.

• Among other substances contained in the plasma are glucose, amino acids, fibrinogen, hormones,
urea, etc.

• The plasma from which the protein fibrinogen has been removed is called serum.

 CELLULAR ELEMENTS (Fig. 7.2) :

• The cellular elements (i.e. shaped structures visible under magnification) of the blood are of three
categories :

1. Red blood cells (erythrocytes),

2. White blood cells (leukocytes),

3. Blood platelets (thrombocytes) .

(1) RED BLOOD CELLS (RBCS ) − The oxygen carriers :
• Red blood cells are also called erythrocytes
erythros: red .

• These are minute biconcave disc-like structures, flat in the

centre and thick and rounded at the periphery.

• These are very small — about 7 𝝁𝒎 in diameter

(1𝜇𝑚 = 10 𝑚).

• The small size plus the concavities on either side provide a

large surface area which makes them very efficient in
absorbing oxygen.

• The small size enables the red blood cells to travel through very fine capillaries in the body.

• An adult human male has about 5 million 𝑹𝑩𝑪𝒔 per 𝒄𝒖𝒃𝒊𝒄 𝒎𝒎 of blood and an adult female has
slightly less about 4.5 million. (1 𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 1000 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 = 10 𝐿𝑎𝑘ℎ)

 HAEMOGLOBIN :
• The effective chemical constituent of RBCs. The red blood cells have a colourless spongy body or
stroma which contains a respiratory pigment haemoglobin (Hb) .

• The haemoglobin is formed of an iron-containing part (haemin) and a protein (globin).

• It has the ability to combine readily with oxygen to form oxyhaemoglobin, an unstable compound
which readily gives up oxygen to the needy tissues.

• Haemoglobin can carry a very small quantity of carbon dioxide in the form of carbamino-
haemoglobin.

 Carbon Monoxide Poisoning :

• Haemoglobin has very strong affinity for carbon monoxide forming a stable compound carboxy-
haemoglobin (HbCO). This cuts down the capacity of the blood of transporting oxygen, sometimes
resulting in death.
• For example, carbon monoxide poisoning may cause death due to furnaces burning in small rooms
without ventilation.

 Life and death of RBCs :

• In adults, the RBCs are produced in the marrow of long bones, especially in the ribs, breast bone
and ilium of hip girdle.
• In an embryo they are produced in the liver and spleen.
• In children, the RBCs are produced in bone marrow of all bones until 5 years of age.
• The mature red blood cells have no nuclei, but when they are being produced, they have one. As
they mature, the nuclei are lost, i.e., they become enucleated.
• The average life of an RBC is about 120 days.
• The old and weak red cells are destroyed in the spleen, liver and bone marrow, their iron part is
retained in the liver while the rest is excreted as a bile pigment (bilirubin).
• In a normal adult, approximately 20,000,000 RBCs are destroyed every minute. In other words,
about 1 per cent of the total erythrocytes in the body are destroyed everyday.

 DEFICIENT, BUT MORE EFFICIENT ! :

Mammalian red blood cells :
• Mammalian red blood cells when mature circulate in the blood system and are devoid of certain
organelles.
• They have no nucleus, no mitochondria, no endoplasmic reticulum.
• Thus, though deficient of the above organelles, the mature red blood cells, in reality, are more
efficient in carrying out their task of picking up and delivering oxygen.

• The factors making them more efficient in this work are as follows :

1. Loss of nucleus, makes the red cells biconcave, thus increasing their surface area volume ratio
for absorbing more oxygen.
• Space in between increased
• More RBCs can be accommodated in the same space

2. Loss of mitochondria means that the red cells cannot use oxygen for themselves (cellular
respiration occurs in mitochondria). Thus all the oxygen, absorbed from the lungs, is
transported and delivered to the tissues unconsumed. Secondly, loss of mitochondria means
full transport of glucose in blood plasma, unused by the RBCs.

3. No endoplasmic reticulum means increased flexibility of RBCs for their movement through
narrow capillaries.
 More about the number of RCB’s :
• New born infants have a larger number of RBCs — about 6-7 million per cubic millimetre (1 𝑚𝑚 ).

• RBC count is lower by 5% during sleep.

• RBC count is higher during physical activity, pregnancy and emotional upsets.

• People living at a height of 4,200 m and above, increase their RBCs by nearly 30%.

• Abnormally increased number of RBCs is called 𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒚𝒄𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒂, and their abnormally

decreased number is known as 𝑬𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒂 .

(2) WHITE BLOOD CELLS (WBCs) :

• White blood cells, or leukocytes (𝑙𝑒𝑢𝑘𝑜 : white), differ from red blood cells in having a nucleus and
do not contain haemoglobin.

• Their number is much less, usually about 4000-8000 per 𝒎𝒎𝟑 of blood.

• Most WBCs are amoeboid and can produce pseudopodia with which they can squeeze through the
walls of the capillaries into the tissues (diapedesis 𝑖𝑎 : across, 𝑝𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠 : oozing out) (Fig. 7.3).

• Based on shape and other characteristics, the white blood cells are classified into two major
categories (granular and non-granular) and five distinct types (Table 7.1) as follows:

• Better term is “white cells” or Leukocytes (𝒍𝒆𝒖𝒌𝒐𝒔 : white) because they spend most of their time
(90%) in tissue fluid or in the lymph and very little time (only about 10%) in the blood.
 FUNCTION S OF LEUCOCYTES (WBCs) :
Body defence :
1. Phagocytosis :

• This is a process in which most WBCs and particularly the neutrophils engulf particle-like solid
substances, especially bacteria. This is a defensive mechanism against disease germs.

• An abnormal increase in WBC count up to about 50,000 or more per cubic mm indicates some
infection in the body.

2. Inflammation :

• Inflammation occurs due to the reaction of tissues to injury and to localized invasion of germs.
The inflamed spot has several characteristics: increased local heat, redness, swelling, pain, etc.

• Here the leucocytes (specially the monocytes and neutrophils) migrate through the walls of the
blood vessels by diapedesis (Fig. 7.3). and fight against disease-causing germs.

• They also destroy the damaged cells by phagocytosis. Pus is mainly composed of the dead white
blood cells together with the tissue cells destroyed by the bacteria.

3. Formation of antibodies :

• The WBCs (specially the lymphocytes) produce antibodies which kill or neutralise the germs, or the
poisons from them.

• Introducing weakened germs or germ substances (vaccines) during vaccination stimulates

formation of particular antibodies which, at a later period, would destroy the particular disease-
causing germs if they enter into the body.

 ANTIBODIES and “ANTITOXINS ” :

• When disease-causing germs gain entry into the blood stream, they produce poisonous
substances called toxins (meaning poisons). In response, the lymphocytes of the blood
produce chemical substances called antibodies which circulate free in the blood plasma.

• The antibodies are specific to the toxins for which they are produced. The antibodies act
as antitoxins which neutralise (detoxify) the poisonous effect of the toxins.

• Antibodies may persist long after the disease has been overcome, and the person who has
recovered becomes immune to the disease. This is the underlying principle of vaccination
(a deliberate introduction of weakened disease germ to stimulate production of the
specific antibodies).
 ORIGIN AND LIFE OF WBCs :
• The WBCs are produced in red bone marrow, lymph nodes and sometimes even in liver
and the spleen.

• Their average life is about two weeks. The neutrophils live for only a few hours, and about
125 billion neutrophils are produced each day.

• The old and worn out WBCs are destroyed in the same manner as the RBCs.

• Leukemia is a cancer of the tissue forming WBCS whose number increases manifold at the
cost of RBCs. It is usually a fatal disease. Currently the treatment is only blood transfusion.

• Leucopenia is the abnormal decrease in the number of WBCS.

 BLOOD PLATELETS (Thrombocytes) : (Initiators of clotting of blood)

• Blood platelets are minute oval or round structures, non-nucleated, floating in the blood.

• These are about 200,000 to 400.000 per cu. mm. of blood in an adult.

• The platelets are derived from some giant cells called megakaryocytes in the red bone marrow.
These are budded off from the megakaryocytes in a manner that each one is completely
surrounded with membrane.

• Their life span is 3 to 5 days and are destroyed mainly in the spleen (a lymphatic organ located in
the abdomen).

• They are very important in clotting of blood. At the site of injury, the platelets disintegrate to
release a chemical substance thrombokinase which initiates the process of clotting of blood.

 CLOTTING OF BLOOD (COAGULATION)

• When a blood vessel is cut, blood escapes from it. But soon a clot is formed on the wound
(Fig. 7.4) and the flow of blood is stopped. If it were not so, the injured person would bleed
to death.

• Clotting (also called coagulation) occurs in a series of steps as follows :

1. The injured tissue cells and the platelets which disintegrate at the site of the wound
release a substance thrombokinase (also called thromboplastin). (More recently it is called
“Factor X” or Stuart factor).

2. The thrombokinase acts as an enzyme and with the help of the calcium ions present in the
plasma, it converts a substance prothrombin (inactive) of the plasma, into thrombin
(active).
3. Thrombin in the presence of calcium ions, reacts with the soluble fibrinogen of the plasma
to convert it into insoluble fibrin. Fibrin is a solid substance that forms threads. These
microscopic threads of fibrin are sticky and form a network (mesh) at the wound.

4. Blood cells are trapped in the network of the fibrin; the network then shrinks and
squeezes out the rest of the plasma which is in the form of a clear liquid, the serum. The
solid mass which is left behind is called clot (or thrombus).

 BLOOD CUTTING IN A TEST TUBE :

• If some blood is taken in a test-tube, a clot will
form in the usual way and the serum squeezed out
from the clot will collect on the surface (Fig. 7.5)

• If the number of platelets falls to an abnormally

low count, then also the coagulation occurs very
slowly and often leads to haemorrhage. Such a
situation occurs in certain diseases as in the viral
dengue fever which has taken hundreds of lives in
Delhi and other states of India since 1996 till date.

• It is a wrong notion that clotting is dependent on the exposure of blood to air. In fact,
clotting can be caused by the movement of blood over a rough surface as on cholesterol
deposit on the inside of a blood vessel.
 BLOOD TRANSFUSION AND BLOOD GROUPS (ABO and Rh systems) :
• Sometimes it becomes necessary to inject blood into the body of patients undergoing surgical
operation. This is called blood-transfusion. Blood taken from a healthy person (donor) is
introduced through one of the patient's veins. But for doing so, it is necessary that the kind or the
type of blood to be transfused should match (or be compatible) with the type of blood of the
receiving person (recipient).

• The concept of blood grouping was discovered by Karl Landsteiner. RBC’s of human beings have
specific proteins on their surface. These proteins are called antigens. The plasma of the blood has
its complementary antibodies. In humans there are two types of antigens : 1. Antigen A & 2.
Antigen B. Depending on the presence or absence of these antigens there are four types of blood
groups as shown in the table.

• There are several systems of blood grouping. But two of them, ABO system and Rh system are
most important.

 ABO System :
• According to the ABO system, the human blood is classified into four types – A, B, AB and O.

• Besides the transfusion of one’s own type of blood (A to A, AB to AB, etc.), the other possible
transfusions can be made as follows :

• Accordingly, O type blood can be given to persons of all types of blood i.e. to O, A, B & AB. Hence a
person with O type is called Universal donor.

• A person with AB type of blood can receive blood from all types, i.e., from AB, A, B & O, and is
therefore, called Universal recipient.

• A person with A type can receive blood from A and O types and a person with B type can receive
blood from B and O types only.

• The summary of matching (compatibility) and mismatching (incompatibility) in ABO system is

given by in the table below :
 Rh System :
• The blood of most people contains a substance called Rh factor. (Rh stands for 𝑹𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔, our
common monkey, in which the factor was first discovered.)

• When the blood of such an individual (Rh-positive) is transfused into persons lacking it (Rh-
negative), the blood of the recipient develops an antibody for Rh substance within about two
weeks of transfusion.

• Now, if a second transfusion be given to such Rh-negative person, the antibody produced by the
first transfusion causes a reaction with the transfused blood, which may even lead to death. This is
similar to the development of allergy.

 Rh factor in pregnancy :
• An Rh-negative woman may become sensitive if she carries an Rh-positive child in her uterus
(when the husband is Rh-positive).

• The first Rh-positive child will be normal, but if it sensitizes the mother, the second positive child
if conceived soon, may have a problem, sometimes leading to the death of foetus and abortion.

• Rh-positive may be written in short as Rh+ve or as 𝑹𝒉 and similarly, the Rh-negative may be
written as Rh-ve or as 𝑹𝒉 .