KINE 2011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Active Transport, Carbonic Anhydrase, Cubic Metre
17 Sep 2017
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Document Summary
3 types of cellular elements suspended in plasma: erythrocytes (red blood cells), typical biconcave shave, flattened disks that have curves. This provides larger surface area an thinness of the cell for more efficient diffusion. They have a flexible membrane (normal diameter is 8um) can deform to travel through ~3um capillaries. Rbc count is ~ 5 million per cubic millimetre. Contains no nucleus, organelles or ribosomes, really, they are illustrating form meeting function. Structure suited to main function oxygen transport. Pigment containing iron is what gives it it"s colour: reddish when oxygenated, bluish when deoxygenated. Main role is to transport oxygen to lungs to tissues, and the repeating. Oxygen is travelling mainly by diffusion which is not good because oxygen is poorly soluble in plasma so 98. 5% is not dissolved in the fluid portion. It is bound to hemoglobin and transported that way. We need another way to get oxygen around, and that is hemoglobin!
