Blood is a renewable living tissue.

A healthy adult has about 5 litres of blood

in his body. This makes up about 9% of his body weight. Our blood is red. This
is because red blood cells are more than white blood cells.
Blood is the mixture of red blood cells, plasma, white blood cells and
platelets. Each of them has their own functions. The function of red blood cells
is to transport oxygen in the form of oxyhaemoglobin to all living cells. Plasma
is a pale yellowish liquid made up of 90% water and 10% soluble substances
such as glucose, amino acids, mineral salts, blood proteins, hormones and
waste materials. As for the platelets, they help in the clotting of blood to stop
bleeding. There are 2 types of white blood cells. They are lymphocytes and
phagocytes. The lymphocytes produce antibodies to kill germs while the
phagocytes carry out phagocytosis by surrounding the bacterium, swallowing
it, digesting it thus killing it.
Sometimes it becomes necessary to inject blood into the body of patients
who are undergoing surgical operation. Blood is also necessary for those who
have lost a lot of blood in accidents and treat certain diseases such as
leukaemia and haemophilia. This process is called blood transfusion. A person
can donate blood every 56 days or about 4-6 times a year. During blood
transfusion, it is essential that the blood to be transfused should be
compatible with the blood of the receiving person. If the matching is wrongly
done, then the red blood cells will stick to each other and block the blood
vessels of the recipients. This is called agglutination which could lead to
serious problems and even death. Agglutination is caused by the antibodies
present in the plasma and the antigens in the red cells. It is essential to
determine the compatibility between the blood group of the donor and that of
the recipient before a blood transfusion is carried out. A person with blood
group O can donate blood to any person with blood group of O, A, B or AB. He
is called a universal donor. A person with blood group of AB can receive blood
from donors of any blood. This means, he can receive blood from donors of
groups AB, A, B or O. He is called universal recipient. A person with blood
group of A can receive blood from group A or group O donors. A person with
blood group of group B can receive blood from donors of group B and group O.
A person with blood group O can only receive blood from donors of group O.
Although blood can be transfused directly, the usual practice in hospitals is
to use blood that has been collected earlier and stored in blood banks at
hospitals at 4 C. There are 2 types of blood in the blood bank: fresh blood
which can only last for 24 hours, and stored blood which can last for about 40
days. Blood is rarely transfused whole. Other substances are added to it
before storage. A donor gives about 1 pint of blood each time and samples of
the blood are also taken for testing and screening. If the donors blood is
found to be unsuitable for transfusion, then the blood taken will be destroyed.
If it is suitable, then the blood will be stored at a cool temperature. Blood cells
and platelets might be separated and resuspended in solution. Plasma can be
frozen too and is used to treat clotting deficiencies.