• Question: how is blood made

    Asked by anon-283900 on 4 Mar 2021. This question was also asked by anon-281864.
    • Photo: Felicity Hunter

      Felicity Hunter answered on 4 Mar 2021:

      Excellent question! Blood is made up of three main parts: plasma, red blood cells and platelets. Firstly, the liquid part of your blood is called “plasma” and is actually yellow in colour! Secondly, red blood cells are what make your blood look red in colour. Thirdly, platelets clot your blood when you get a cut and help you to form scabs. The liquid plasma part comes from what you drink whereas the red blood cells and the platelets are made inside your bones. 🙂

    • Photo: Jo Brodie

      Jo Brodie answered on 5 Mar 2021:

      Inside our bones, our bone marrow contains a particular group of cells (called ‘stem cells’) which can form all of the different types of cells that make up our blood (including the main ones: the red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells (which form our immune system), but those stem cells make all of other types of cells found in our blood too).
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      Science has a wonderfully long word to describe the process of creating blood which is “haematopoiesis” (1). ‘Haem’ comes from the Greek word for blood, and ‘poiesis’ comes from the Greek word for making something – it also gives us the word ‘poetry’. There are many different kinds of stem cells in the body and each type has its own particular job. Some produce skin cells, others produce brain cells or muscle cells but ‘haematopoietic stem cells’ (blood-producing stem cells) are the ones which make our blood.
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      What makes your blood *your* blood are little markers on the red blood cells that you inherit from your parents; this is your ‘blood type’ also known as your blood group. Some people have ‘A’ markers, so they have Blood Type A, some have ‘B’ (Blood Type B), some have both (Blood Type AB) and some people’s red blood cells don’t carry any markers (Blood Type O).
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      That information becomes important if a patient needs a blood transfusion because the donated blood must match the patient’s blood group, or it will make them very ill. Healthy adults can donate a pint of their blood several times a year (and thanks to our haematopoietic stem cells we are easily able to replace the blood cells we’ve donated, so donating doesn’t harm us). You can find out more about the different blood groups here https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/blood-groups/ and about how long it takes for someone’s body to replace blood cells after a donation here https://www.blood.co.uk/the-donation-process/after-your-donation/how-your-body-replaces-blood/
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      Jo
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      (1) Sometimes people say ‘haemopoiesis’ which is a tiny bit shorter but means the same thing. In the US they mostly spell it hem- instead of haem.

    • Photo: Lizzie Pendlington

      Lizzie Pendlington answered on 5 Mar 2021: last edited 5 Mar 2021 2:12 pm

      Blood is quite a mix of things. It is mostly made up of water, salts and sugars and other molecules that your body needs. But the bit your body actually makes are the three types of cells in it: red blood cells (these transport the oxygen we need for our body to make energy), white blood cells (these help fight infection in our body) and platelets (bits of cells that help heal cuts!)

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      Now how the body actually makes these cells is quite cool. Inside your bones there is something called bone marrow which makes lots of different cells. One of these cells sits near the edge and stretches out tentacle like structures into your blood stream – red blood cells and other things in your blood bump into these tentacles and break off bits, making platelets!

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      The red and white blood cells are also made in the bone marrow but from special cells called stem cells. Stem cells are super helpful as they can change into most cell types. I hope that answer helped 😊

    • Photo: Jess Buddle

      Jess Buddle answered on 5 Mar 2021:

      Hey! Blood is made inside the bones – in something called bone marrow. In the bone marrow there are stem cells which are very clever cells that can turn into different kinds of cells. These stem cells will go on to form all of the different parts of blood – the different cells that make up what we see as “blood” 🙂

    • Photo: Claire Price

      Claire Price answered on 5 Mar 2021:

      Blood is really cool because it isn’t just a red liquid – it is made up of all different parts! There is plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

      Plasma is the liquid part of the cell and it carries all the different parts of the blood around the body. It is made of water and salts that have been absorbed in your digestive tract (so stomach and intestines).

      The red blood cells are what give the blood its lovely red colour. The kidneys are the organs that actually say whether red blood cells need to be made or not. The kidneys send out a hormone that tells the bone marrow to release red blood cells into the body.

      White blood cells are really important because these are the cells that help us fight infection when we are ill. They are also made by the bone marrow.

      Platelets are also made in the bone marrow and is the thing that helps us make scabs when we cut ourselves.

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