What Blood Cells Look like down the Microscope Discussion

1. Pre-Lab Project 5: Blood Cells

Your recording should describe a key concept from your chosen video and pose a question based on something you did not understand about the content (by Sunday). Be sure to announce which video you’re describing.

Pick one of the following 3 video-topics. Takes notes and record your statement (minimum of 50 words):

1. Blood:
2. Blood Cell Counts:
3. White blood Cell Types:

You will have to record and submit a media-file!

• Use the media tab in your submission to record your media. For instructions, follow link. 

The average human adult has more than 5 liters (6 quarts) of blood in his or her body. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to living cells and takes away their waste products. It also delivers immune cells to fight infections and contains platelets that can form a plug in a damaged blood vessel to prevent blood loss.

Through the circulatory system, blood adapts to the body’s needs. When you are exercising, your heart pumps harder and faster to provide more blood and hence oxygen to your muscles. During an infection, the blood delivers more immune cells to the site of infection, where they accumulate to ward off harmful invaders.

All of these functions make blood a precious fluid. Each year in the USA, 30 million units of blood components are transfused to patients who need them. Blood is deemed so precious that is also called “red gold” because the cells and proteins it contains can be sold for more than the cost of the same weight in gold.

This chapter introduces the components of blood.

The straw-colored fluid that forms the top layer is called plasma and forms about 60% of blood. The middle white layer is composed of white blood cells (WBCs) and platelets, and the bottom red layer is the red blood cells (RBCs). These bottom two layers of cells form about 40% of the blood.

Plasma is mainly water, but it also contains many important substances such as proteins (albumin, clotting factors, antibodies, enzymes, and hormones), sugars (glucose), and fat particles.

All of the cells found in the blood come from bone marrow. They begin their life as stem cells, and they mature into three main types of cells— RBCs, WBCs, and platelets. In turn, there are three types of WBC—lymphocytes, monocytes, and granulocytes—and three main types of granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils). See them in action in “Meet the blood cells”.

See a figure of all the cellular elements of blood in Janeway & Traver’s Immunobiology

A sample of blood can be further separated into its individual components by spinning the sample in a centrifuge. The force of the spinning causes denser elements to sink, and further processing enables the isolation of a particular protein or the isolation of a particular type of blood cell. With the use of this method, antibodies and clotting factors can be harvested from the plasma to treat immune deficiencies and bleeding disorders, respectively. Likewise, RBCs can be harvested for blood transfusion.

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Red blood cells transport oxygen
Image iconrbc.jpg
Every second, 2-3 million RBCs are produced in the bone marrow and released into the circulation. Also known as erythrocytes, RBCs are the most common type of cell found in the blood, with each cubic millimeter of blood containing 4-6 million cells. With a diameter of only 6 µm, RBCs are small enough to squeeze through the smallest blood vessels. They circulate around the body for up to 120 days, at which point the old or damaged RBCs are removed from the circulation by specialized cells (macrophages) in the spleen and liver.
In humans, as in all mammals, the mature RBC lacks a nucleus. This allows the cell more room to store hemoglobin, the oxygen-binding protein, enabling the RBC to transport more oxygen. RBCs are also biconcave in shape; this shape increases their surface area for the diffusion of oxygen across their surfaces. In non-mammalian vertebrates such as birds and fish, mature RBCs do have a nucleus.

See an electron micrograph of red blood cells in Albert’s
Molecular Biology of the Cell

If a patient has a low level of hemoglobin, a condition called anemia, they may appear pale because hemoglobin gives RBCs, and hence blood, their red color. They may also tire easily and feel short of breath because of the essential role of hemoglobin in transporting oxygen from the lungs to wherever it is needed around the body.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource