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Red Blood Cells or Erythrocytes
The rec blood cell (RBC) is aflexible, biconcave disc shaped anucleated cell. The main contituent of Red Blod Cell is hemoglobin. The funtion of the red blood cell is to bring oxygen carried by hemoglobin to the tissues
Red Blood Cells or Erythrocytes are the most common type of blood cell found in man. The main funtion of Red Blood Cells or Erythrocytes is to transport Oxygen form the lungs to the tissues.
The major function of red blood cells, also known as erythrocytes, is to transport hemoglobin, which in turn carries oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. When hemoglobin is free in the plasma of the human being, a little amount of it will leak out through the capillary membrane into tissue spaces. For hemoglobin to remain in the blood, it have to be carried in blood cells preferably the RBC or Erythrocytes.
Apart from the transport funtion of the red blood cells, the red blood cells also have other funtions. You may be wondering what other function that the red blood cells perform. The red blood cells contain carbonic anhydrase, an enzyme that catalyzes the reversible reaction between carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) to form carbonic acid (H2CO3), increasing the rate of this reaction several thousandfold.
This reaction makes it possible for blood to transport enormous quantities of CO2 in the form of bicarbonate ion (HCO3–) from the tissues to the lungs, where it is reconverted to CO2 and expelled into the atmosphere as a body waste product.
The hemoglobin in the erythrocytes serves as acid-base buffer just like other proteins do. so the red blood cell in addition to tranportation funtion also serves as acid-base buffer in the blood.
