Monocytes
Monocytes are white blood cells that fight infection by surrounding and destroying bacteria and viruses.
Platelets
Platelets, also called thrombocytes (say: throm-buh-sytes) are tiny round cells that help to make sure you don't bleed too much once you get a cut or scrape. Cuts and scrapes break blood vessels. If a platelet reaches a blood vessel that's been broken open, it sends out a chemical signal that makes other nearby platelets start to stick together inside the vessel,
After the platelets form this plug, they send out more chemical signals that attract dotting factors. These clotting factors work together to make a web of tiny protein threads, the platelets and this web of protein come together to make a blood clot. The clot keeps your blood inside the vessel while the break in the blood vessel heals up. Without platelets, you'd need more than a bandage to catch the blood when you scrape your knee!
Plasma
Plasma is a yellowish liquid that is mostly water. But it also carries important nutrients, hormones, and proteins throughout the body. Nutrients are chemicals from the food you eat that give your body energy and other things your body's cells need to do their work and keep you healthy.
Hormones carry messages throughout your body, telling it what to do and when. An example of a hormone is growth hormone. -It gets your bones and muscles to grow. Many proteins in plasma are really important to your body, like -the clotting factors that help you stop bleeding if you get a cut or a scrape.
Plasma also carries away cell •waste chemicals that the cell doesn't want anymore. Nutrients, hormones, proteins, and waste are dissolved in the plasma kind 'of like the cocoa mix that dissolves in a cup of hot water. What are the marshmallows? The blood cells they float in the plasma.
Hey, What's Your Type?
Everybody's blood is red, but it's not all the same. There are eight blood types, described using the letters A, B, and O. Those letters stand for certain proteins found on the red blood cells. Not everyone has the same proteins. In addition to getting a letter or two, a person's blood is either "positive" or "negative." That doesn't mean one person's blood is good and another person's blood is bad. It's a way of keeping track of whether some one's blood has a certain protein called Rh protein.
This protein is called "Rh" because scientists found it while studying Rhesus monkeys. If your blood is positive, you have this protein. If it's negative, you don't. Either way is totally fine.
People have one of these eight different blood types:
1. A negative 5. 0 negative
2. A positive 6. 0 positive
3 B negative 7. AB negative
4. B positive 8. AB positive
Blood types are important if a person ever wants to donate blood or needs a blood transfusion. Getting blood of the wrong type can make a person sick. That's why hospitals and blood banks are very careful with donated blood and make sure the person gets the right type. . People might need blood transfusions when they're sick or if they lose blood. Without enough healthy blood, the body won't get the oxygen and energy it needs. Healthy blood also protects you from germs and other invaders.
Now that you know how important blood is, what can you do? Kids generally aren't allowed to donate blood, but when you're older consider giving the gift of life!
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited