Red+Blood+Cells+-+XH

=Introduction= toc

Red blood cells give oxygen up to the lungs, which allows us to breathe. If you didn't have oxygen, you would DIE! Red blood cells are essential for our survival. You will learn about what red blood cells do and more.

=What do Red Blood Cells do?=

Red blood cells take oxygen in the lungs and deliver it to cells in the body. The oxygen is traded for carbon dioxide, the waste product of cellular respiration, which gets shuttled back into the lungs to be exhaled. Oxygen is needed for the chemical reactions that take place in your cells. An example of a reaction is a fire, which can’t burn without oxygen. Your cells can’t “burn”enough fuel to keep you alive without oxygen. The process in which oxygen and glucose undergo a complex series of chemical reactions inside your cells is called respiration.

=What shape are Red Blood Cells and why are they shaped this way?=

Red blood cells are shaped like discs with pinched in centers. Under a microscope, a red blood cell looks like a tiny jelly doughnut. The shape allows it to have an increased surface area and flexibility as it squeezes through the smallest capillaries for delivery of oxygen from the lungs to body tissues.

=How are White Blood Cells different from Red Blood Cells?=

Like red blood cells, white blood cells are produced in bone marrow. White blood cells find and destroy any bacteria; they alert the body that it has been invaded. Other white blood cells will try to help fight by producing chemicals and defeat the invaders (disease, bacteria, virus and others). White blood cells are different from red blood cells in a lot of important ways. There are fewer of them, only about one white blood cell for every 500 to 1,000 red blood cells. White blood cells are also larger than red blood cells. Most white blood cells can live for months or even years and red blood cells can only live up to 120 days.

=How long do Red Blood Cells live and what happens to them when they break down?=

Red blood cells last for about 120 days in the bloodstream. Most of the red blood cells self-destruct, rather than being removed from circulation and destroyed like white blood cells. Red blood cell self-destruction happens in the spleen. When the blood cell breaks down, hemoglobin is released back into the system. It goes back to the bone marrow where it is used to produce new blood cells. Unlike regular red blood cells, fragile sickle cells break down after only about 10 to 20 days, which usually causes anemia.

=What is Sickle Cell Anemia=

Sickle Cell Anemia is a blood disorder that affects hemoglobin, the protein found in red blood cells that helps carry oxygen throughout the body. Sickle cell anemia occurs when a person inherits two abnormal genes (one from each parent) that cause their RBCs to change shape. Instead of being flexible and disc-shaped, these cells are more stiff and curved in the shape of the old farm tool known as a sickle.Sickle cell anemia occurs because an abnormal form of hemoglobin (HbS) is produced. HbS molecules tend to clump together, making red blood cells sticky, stiff, and more fragile, and causing them to form into a curved, sickle shape. Teens with sickle cell anemia may develop jaundice, a condition that results from the high rate of red blood cell breakdown. Jaundice can cause a person's skin and whites of the eyes to develop a yellowish tint. To diagnose sickle cell anemia, doctors use a special blood test called a hemoglobin electrophoresis (pronounced: eh-lek-tro-fuh-ree-sis) to look for sickle hemoglobin in a person's blood.

=**Conclusion**=

As you can see, red blood cells are very important. They take oxygen in the lungs and deliver it to cells in the body, which allows us to breathe and live. Red blood cells are shaped like discs with pinched in centers, so they have a large surface area to absorb oxygen. When healthy they last for about 120 days in the bloodstream, but people with Sickle Cell Anemia have sickle-shaped cells that last only about 10 to 20 days, which causes the body to not have enough healthy blood cells, a condition called anemia.

=**References**=

Works Cited Green, Dan, and Simon Basher. Biology: [life as We Know It!]. New York: Kingfisher, 2008. Print. Life Science: Cells Discovery Education, 2002. Full Video. Discovery Education. Web. 19 December 2014. . Padilla, Michael J., Ioannis Miaoulis, and Martha Cyr. Prentice Hall Science Explorer. Boston: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Print. Red Blood Cells. Interactive-Biology. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2014. . “Red Blood Cells: Riding on the Red Road.” The Franklin Institute. The Franklin Institute, 2015. Web. 21 Jan. 2015. . “Word! Red Blood Cells.” Kids Health. Nemours, 2014. Web. 18 Dec. 2014. .