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What is Pernicious Anaemia?
First – a word about Blood.
Technically blood is a tissue and is made up of two main parts: Blood Plasma and Blood Cells.
Plasma is the liquid suspension that the Cells float in. Plasma will also contain vitamins, clotting agents, various dissolved proteins, glucose, hormones and anti-bodies that fight infections.
The Blood Cell part of blood is made up of three types of Cells: Red Blood Cells (RBC’s) also known as Erythrocytes, White Blood Cells (WBC’s) also called Leukocytes and Platelets or Thrombocytes. The body uses Platelets to clot the blood to stop bleeding. The White Blood Cells fight infections while the Red Blood Cells carry oxygen from the lungs to wherever it is needed.
All blood cells are produced in bone marrow. In adults, only specific bones produce blood cells (the sternum, backbone, ribs and pelvis) whilst almost all the bones in the body produce blood cells in children. The process by which the body produces blood is called Haematopoiesis.
Red blood cells live for about 120 days and old cells are removed by the liver and spleen. Iron, Folate and Vitamin B12 are all needed to produce healthy RBC’s. Red Blood Cells form the largest part of blood. The percentage of RBC’s in blood is known as the Haematocrit. A normal healthy person will have 600 RBC’s to every one White Blood Cell and 40 Platelets.
The main purpose of Red Blood Cells is to carry oxygen from the lungs to cells throughout the body. Some oxygen is carried in the Plasma but a protein in the Red Blood Cell called Haemaglobin allows much larger concentration of oxygen to be carried by the RBC. Haemaglobin also makes the plasma more viscous. Red Blood Cells are able to change shape to allow them to carry the oxygen into very narrow capillaries where the exchange of oxygen takes place. Red Blood Cells have an unusual shape as they have a concave middle on each side of the cell. 33% of a Red Blood Cell is Haemaglobin. Each molecule of Haemaglobin contains four iron atoms and it is these iron atoms that give blood its red colour.
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