Life and Death of a Red Blood Cell (Red Bull)

MY STORY as a Red Blood Cell

My name is Red Bull, the red blood cell.

They called me Red because of the redness of my color and Bull because I am always charging along the Blood stream like a Bull.

There are 5 million red blood cells per cubic millimeter of blood which means that the entire body contains approximately 25 trillion red blood cells

Yes it is true that I have 25 trillions brothers in the human body.

I was born in the bone marrow of the pelvis of my human host.

The other cells wanted to call me Red Pelvis which is a horrible name so I start to chase them in my bull like fashion until they finally called me Red Bull.

I have a best friend who was called Humorous Red because he was born at the bone marrow end of the humerus. He does not mind the name and was always making humorous jokes:

“A man let out a large burp.
Nearby, a man loudly says “How dare you burp before my wife!”
The burper replies “I didn't even know she wanted to burp first!”Hahaha!”

I called him HR. We have lots of fun together

I was born on Christmas day 25/12/2012 at 10.am in the pelvis of my human host Ken.

It took me 7 days in the bone marrow before I was transformed from a stem cell into a developing red blood cell or reticulocyte and then released into the blood stream.

In fact 2 million of new RBCs are released into blood stream every second.

I am expected to live for 120 days which means that I may die on 4/4/2013.

My friend HR was born 2 days after me in the humerus bone.

The first time that I was released into the blood circulation from the bone, I was still an immature RBC or reticulocyte.

It took me 1 day before my Hemoglobin was fully developed and I was able to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide.

That makes me a fully mature RBC.

A mature RBC is biconcave in shape with a disk diameter of 8μm and a thickness of 2μm.

My responsibility is to carry oxygen to the tissues and remove waste carbon dioxide.

My unique biconcave shape gives small volume and large surface and my induced large surface-to-volume ratio will allow me to contain more hemoglobin which is helpful to increase the rate of diffusion of the Oxygen and Carbon Oxide.

My first day in the blood circulation was in the blood capillary from the bone marrow.

From the capillary I was taken into the venous blood system which then leads me to the heart where I was pumped into an area (the lungs) full of bubbly gas that cling to me.

That gas (oxygen) was so refreshing.

In a short while I was pumped out of the heart into the blood stream.

I literately went round the whole body in 20 seconds.

My biconcave shape helps me to squeeze through small lumen of the capillaries so easily.

The diameter of most of the capillaries is 25% smaller than the width of our cell body but because of our concave shape we were able to squeeze through the capillaries.

As I went through the body my oxygen gas is released to the cells.

Some of them needed the oxygen and thanked me profusely.

Others left me holding on to their carbon dioxide.

“Wow” I exclaimed “This is an amazing job.”

I loved moving in the blood stream and helping the other cells.

I first met Humorous Red when he was just coming out in his capillary blood vessel from his bone marrow at the humerus bone.

He was slightly bigger than me and was caught in a kink in the capillary.

I was smaller than him and was so used after 2 days to moving around in the capillaries that I was able to push and pull him out of the kink of the capillary. I was also able to release ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and S-nitrosothiols which relax the blood vessel walls to relax and open wider.

He was so happy that he now follows me whether I went.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Chapter 1 Story of Red Bull RBC

Chapter 2 Life Cycle of Red Blood Cell

Chapter 3 Formation of a RBC

Chapter 4 Death of a RBC

Chapter 5 The Red Blood Cells

Chapter 6 The Blood

Chapter 7 The Blood Cells