The cardiovascular system

The blood
 The cardiovascular system
The cardiovascular system Regulation
• Circulating blood helps maintain homeostasis of
Consists of interrelated components: all body fluids
• The blood • Helps regulate pH
• The heart • Help adjust body temperature
• Blood vessels

Functions of Blood Protection

• Blood clots to prevent excess loss during injury
Transportation • White blood cells protect against disease by
• O2 from lungs to body cells caring phagocytosis
• CO2 from body cells to lungs for
inhalation
• Carry nutrients from GIT to body
cells
• Carry hormones from endocrine
glands to other body cells
• Transports heat and waste
Functions and properties of blood

Physical characteristics of blood Blood plasma

• The liquid part of blood

• Blood is denser an more viscous than water
• 91.5% is water and 8.5% solutes (plasma proteins;
• Feels more sticky
albumins, globulins and fibrinogen)
• Temperature is about 38oc
• Plasma proteins are also called antibodies or
• Alkaline pH- 7.35 to 7.45
immunoglobulins
• Blood volume is 5 to 6 L in young males and
• contain other solutes like electrolytes, nutrients,
4 to 5L in young females
enzymes and hormones, gases and waste products

Components of blood

Blood has two components;

• Plasma (55%
• Formed elements (45%)– cells and
cell fragments
 Functions and properties of blood
Components of Blood

Formed elements
Include;
I. RBCs
II. WBCs (neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils,
monocytes and lymphocytes)
III. Platelets

• RBCs and WBCs are whole cells and

platelets are cell fragments
• Percentage of total blood volume occupied
by RBCs is called haematocrit
• Normal range is 38-46% in adult females
and 40-54% in adult males
 Formation of blood cells
• Most formed elements of blood last only hours, days
or weeks
• Need to be replaced continually
• Negative feedback system regulate the total number
of RBCs and platelets in circulation
How about WBCs?
• Abundance of different types of
WBCs varies in response to
challenging pathogens
Hemopoiesis or hematopoiesis
• The process by which formed elements of blood
develop
• Occurs in York sac, later in liver, spleen, thymus
and lymphnodes before birth
• Bone marrow is the site for hemopoiesis in the last
3 moths and throughout lfe.
• Formed elements develop from pluripotent stem
cells of the bone marrow
Origin, development, and structure of blood
cells
 Formed elements of blood
Red blood cells

• Mature RBCs are biconcave, lack nuclei and

contain haemoglobin
• Hemoglobin transports O2 and CO2 and give blood
its characteristic colour red
• Live for 120 days
• Aged RBCs are phagocytosed by macrophages,
haemoglobin is recycled

RBCs formation (erythropoiesis)

• occurs in adult red bone marrow of certain bones
• Stimulated by hypoxia, which stimulates the release of
erythropoietin by the kidneys
 Formed elements of blood
White blood cells

• Classified as either granular or agranular

based on the presence of chemical-filled
cytoplasmic granules

Granular leukocytes

Neutrophils
• Granules smaller than those of other granular leukocytes,
and evenly distributed
• Nucleus has two to five lobes, connected by very thin
strands

Eosinophil
• Large, uniform granules
• Nucleus has two lobes connected by a thick or thin strand.
 Formed elements of blood
Granular leukocytes

Basophil
• Granules commonly obscure the nucleus,
which has two lobes
 Formed elements of blood
Agranular Leukocytes

Lymphocyte
• The nucleus stains dark and is round or
slightly indented
• The cytoplasm stains sky blue and forms a
rim around the nucleus. Classified as large
lymphocytes (10-14um) or small
lymphocytes (6-9um)

Monocyte
Nucleus is kidney shaped or horseshoe-
shaped
Cytoplasm is blue-gray and has a formy
appearance
Migrate from blood into tissues, where they
enlarge and differentiate into macrophages
 Formed elements
Functions of white blood cells Eosinophils
• Combat the effects of histamine in allergic
Neutrophils and macrophages reactions
• Phagocytosis- ingest bacteria and dispose of dead • Phagocytize antigen-antibody complexes, and
matter combat parasitic worms.
• Neutrophils respond quickly to tissue destruction by
bacteria
Basophils
• Basophils liberate heparin, histamine, and
Monocytes serotonin in allergic reactions that intensify
• Take longer to reach site of infection than do the inflammatory response
neutrophils, but arrive in large numbers and destroy
more microbes Lymphocytes
• Upon arrival at the site, they differentiate into
wandering macrophages, which help clean up B lymphocyte
Differentiate into plasma cells that produce
antibodies in the presence of foreign substances
called antigens
 Formed elements
Lymphocytes

T lymphocytes
• Destroy foreign invaders directly

Natural killer cells

• Attack infectious microbes and tumour cells

Platelets (thrombocytes)
• Disc-shaped cell fragments that splinter from
megakaryocytes
• Normal blood contains 150,000-400,000
platelets/ul
• Help stop blood loss from damaged blood vessel
by forming platelet plug
 Blood clotting
• Blood remains in its liquid form within blood
vessels
• If removed from body it thickens and forms a gel
• Gel separates from the liquid (serum) and the gel
is called blood clot
• Blood clot consists of insoluble proteins fibers
called fibrin where formed elements of blood are
trapped
Blood clotting (coagulation) factors
• Clotting involves several substances known as clotting
(coagulation) factors
• Include calcium ions, inactive enzymes from liver cells,
molecules released by platelets and damaged tissue
• Most clotting factors are identified by Roman
numericals indicating their order of discovery
Stages of blood clotting
Extrinsic pathway
• Has fever steps than intrinsic pathway, and
happens within seconds if trauma is severe
• Called extrinsic because tissue factor leaks into
blood from cells outside blood vessels and
initiates formation of prothrombinase
Intrinsic pathway
• More complex than extrinsic pathway
• Occurs more slowly, requires several minutes
• So named because its activators originate
within the blood
• End results is the formation of prothrombinase
 Blood clotting
Stages in blood clotting

Common pathway
• Formation of prothrombinase marks the beginning
of the common pathway
• In second stage of blood clotting prothrombinase
and Ca+ catalyse the conversion of prothrombin to
thrombin
• In third stage thrombin converts soluble fibrinogen
to insoluble fibrin
• Thrombin also activates factor XIII, which
strenghthens and stabilize the fibrin threads into a
sturdy clot
The blood clotting cascade
 Blood groups and blood types
• Surface of erythrocytes contain a genetically ABO blood group
determined assortment of antigens composed of • Is based on two glycolipid antigens
glycoproteins and glycolipids called A and B
• Antigens also called agglutinogenes occur in
characteristic combinations Blood group type A
• Based on the presence or absence of various • Their RBCs display only antigen A
antigens blood is characterized into different blood • Have anti-B antibody
groups
• Within a blood group they maybe two or more Blood group type B
different blood types • Their RBCs display only antigen B
• There atleast 24 blood groups and more than • Have anti-A antibody
hundred antigens detected on surface of RBCs.
Blood group type AB
• Have both Antigen A and B
• Do not have antibody
Blood group type O
• Have neither A nor B antigens
• have both anti-A antibody and anti-B antibody
Summary of the ABO blood groups
 blood groups
Rh blood groups

• So named because the Rh antigen, called Rh factor

was first found in the blood if Rhesus monkey
• Rh+ people have the Rh antigen in their RBCs
• Rh- people lack Rh antigen in their RBCs

• Normally blood does not contain anti- Rh

antibodies.
• However if an Rh- person receives an Rh+
blood, immune system starts to make anti-Rh
antibodies that remain in blood
• If a second transfusion of Rh+ blood is given
later, previously formed anti-Rh antibodies
will cause agglutination and hemolysis of the
RBCs in the donated blood.