Hemeprotein demand for energy. Therefore, muscle cells use myoglobin to accelerate oxygen diffusion and act as localized oxygen reserves for times of intense respiration. In vertebrates, hemoglobin is found in the cytosol of red blood cells in the bloodstream. Hemoglobin is sometimes referred to as the oxygen transport protein, in order to contrast it with its stationary cousin myoglobin, although its function and mechanism are more complex than this name would suggest. In vertebrates, oxygen is taken into the body by the tissues of the lungs, and passed to the red blood cells in the bloodstream. Oxygen is then distributed to
Red blood cell form. When red blood cells sometimes occur as a stack, flat side next to flat side. This is known as "rouleaux formation", and it occurs more often if the levels of certain serum proteins are elevated, as for instance during inflammation. Red blood cells can be obtained from whole blood by centrifugation, which separates the cells from the blood plasma in a process known as blood fractionation. Packed red blood cells, which are made in this way from whole blood with the plasma removed, are used in transfusion medicine. During plasma donation, the red blood cells are pumped back into