In a circuit through the cardiovascular system, red blood cells transport oxygen from the lungs to the body tissues and transport carbon dioxide from the body tissues to the lungs.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Related Articles: blood , human cardiovascular system , red blood cellNARRATOR: The transport system between the respiratory membrane and the body's cells is the blood, just as it is in the earthworm and the fish.
Interwoven with the tree of the bronchial tubes in our lungs is the circulatory system, which forms a continuous pathway of blood vessels to every corner of the body. All these pathways come together at the heart, the central pump through which all blood flows.
This is a red blood cell, and it has an appointment to keep. The true workhorse of the bloodstream, this red blood cell is specifically designed to carry more oxygen faster than any mere fluid.
There are 25 million million red blood cells. They make up nearly all of the solid portion of the blood. The fluid portion is called the plasma.
Let's imagine that this is the only red blood cell and that we're going to follow along as it travels through a typical circuit.
We'll start here, on the right side of the heart. Our journey begins with a heartbeat.
The first destination is a lung.
Here the pathway branches again and again, leading the blood through the smallest of the blood vessels--the capillaries. A web of capillaries surrounds each alveolus.
Inside an alveolus our oxygen molecule dissolves into the film of moisture and diffuses across the thin respiratory membrane, entering a capillary . . .
. . . just as the red blood cell sweeps past the same alveolus. Our oxygen molecule, as well as many others, latches onto the red blood cell, turning it a brighter red.
The oxygen rich cell then flows back to the left side of the heart, completing the first loop of its circuit. The heart drives the blood out again, this time to supply the oxygen needs of the rest of the body. The course it takes is determined almost completely by chance.
Once again the blood is directed into thin capillaries. Surrounding the capillaries, the living cells are all using up oxygen and building up concentrations of carbon dioxide.
When the red blood cell reaches cells which contain less oxygen than the blood, its cargo of O2 diffuses into the cells. At the same time waste carbon dioxide will diffuse into the bloodstream from concentrations outside and be picked up by the blood cell and the plasma.
It now flows back to the right side of the heart, completing the second loop of its circuit and returning to its starting position. From here it begins again . . .
. . . back to a lung, back into the capillaries surrounding an alveolus, where it releases its load of carbon dioxide and picks up a new load of oxygen.
