Is blood an organ?
Opinions are divided on whether blood is an organ or not. What is certain, however, is that the red sap of life takes on important functions without which one could not exist.
What blood actually is
Blood can definitely be called an organ, as is done in many specialist books. After all, blood has a specific field of activity like other organs. Other experts, however, do not count blood as an organ because it has no fixed form, can change and is subject to constant change. But what exactly is blood?
- Blood consists of blood plasma, the liquid part and the hematocrit, i.e. the solid part or the blood cells. The plasma makes approx. 55 to 60 percent of the blood and 90 percent water, various proteins, the albumins and the Globulins as well as from small molecular substances like glucose, various ions, micronutrients, hormones, enzymes and Metabolic products. The plasma also contains the coagulation factors that are responsible for blood clotting.
- The blood cells are namely the erythrocytes (red blood cells), the leukocytes (white blood cells) and the thrombocytes (blood platelets). The erythrocytes are nucleated cells that are formed in the bone marrow and after approx. 120 days to be discarded by the spleen. They do approx. 99 percent of the blood cells - in fact every human has so many red blood cells that if they were strung together they would stretch around the earth five times! Hemoglobin, the red blood pigment that produces oxygen, is bound to the erythrocytes.
- The leukocytes are further subdivided into granulocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes. When it comes to granulocytes, a distinction is made between neutrophilic, eosinophilic and basophilic granulocytes. The leukocytes play a key role in the immune system.
- The platelets are constrictions of larger cells in the bone marrow. They play a key role in stopping bleeding in the event of an injury.
Blood is necessary for life - there is none without blood. It warms the body and ...
The organ fulfills these functions
As an organ - if you want to call blood that - this red sap of life fulfills various tasks:
- The blood transports nutrients, oxygen, hormones and enzymes to their destination.
- The blood circulation causes a constant body temperature and thus regulates the heat balance.
- Due to the immune cells in the blood, the leukocytes, the blood plays a key role in the immune reaction.
- at Injuries reacts body with hemostasis and blood clotting and thus closes the wound.
- Finally, the blood is able to keep the sensitive pH value constant by means of buffer systems.
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