Life as a red blood cell
The Life of a red blood cell
In my latest interview I am following up the journey and life of a red blood cell. A red blood cell is a round red cell which can only be seen microscopically, it delivers the body vital nutrients such as oxygen. Oxygen is important to the body because if areas say in the heart or the brain doesn’t receive oxygen, that part of it will die and you may suffer a heart attack or even die. The journey of a red blood cell starts in the left ventricle and is then pumped through the left atrium and then through the aorta, the bodies’ largest artery. The red blood cell then moves through a lot of increasingly small arteries until it comes to the capillaries. It then passes through the capillary wall (one cell thick) and into the body tissue. Now that the blood is de-oxygenated, it starts its journey back through the capillaries and to the larger veins and then finally reaches the right atrium. The red blood cell then enters the right ventricle and through the pulmonary arteries which lead to into the lungs. If the blood cell didn’t go through the lungs and pick up oxygen and take it round the body, your organs would run out of oxygen and would then shut down and you would soon after die. Once the blood cell has picked up more oxygen from the lungs, it re-enters back into the left ventricle with oxygenated blood which then the whole circulation starts again. A red blood cell will do this for about 100-120 days in the body before its components are recycled. Each circulation around the body lasts for about 20 seconds. And that is my latest interview, on the journey and life of a red blood cell.
In my latest interview I am following up the journey and life of a red blood cell. A red blood cell is a round red cell which can only be seen microscopically, it delivers the body vital nutrients such as oxygen. Oxygen is important to the body because if areas say in the heart or the brain doesn’t receive oxygen, that part of it will die and you may suffer a heart attack or even die. The journey of a red blood cell starts in the left ventricle and is then pumped through the left atrium and then through the aorta, the bodies’ largest artery. The red blood cell then moves through a lot of increasingly small arteries until it comes to the capillaries. It then passes through the capillary wall (one cell thick) and into the body tissue. Now that the blood is de-oxygenated, it starts its journey back through the capillaries and to the larger veins and then finally reaches the right atrium. The red blood cell then enters the right ventricle and through the pulmonary arteries which lead to into the lungs. If the blood cell didn’t go through the lungs and pick up oxygen and take it round the body, your organs would run out of oxygen and would then shut down and you would soon after die. Once the blood cell has picked up more oxygen from the lungs, it re-enters back into the left ventricle with oxygenated blood which then the whole circulation starts again. A red blood cell will do this for about 100-120 days in the body before its components are recycled. Each circulation around the body lasts for about 20 seconds. And that is my latest interview, on the journey and life of a red blood cell.