Biconcave disc characteristic red color and transport oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. Mature red blood cells are round and biconcave because they lack a nucleus and unlike other cells, red cells require a small amount of oxygen for its metabolism and most oxygen is freed into the tissues. The absence of nucleus, ribosomes, and mitochondria partly contributes to the red blood cell’s disc-like structure which leaves room for hundreds of millions of hemoglobin molecules found within the cells. Hemoglobin is a red and iron-rich protein that merges with oxygen to carry oxygen from the lungs to the body tissues. Both
Red blood cell loss, such as prior to an operation. Before blood is given, a small sample of the recipient's blood is tested with the transfusion in a process known as cross-matching. In addition to the transmission of infection, certain types of transfusion reaction. In 2008 it was reported that human embryonic stem cells had been successfully coaxed into becoming red blood cells in the lab. The difficult step was to induce the cells to eject their nucleus; this was achieved by growing the cells on stromal cells from the bone marrow. It is hoped that these artificial red blood cells can eventually