How many types of cells does blood contain?

Answer 1

The answer varies on how specific one wishes to go. Most generally, there exist 3 large groups of cells in the blood: erythrocytes, leukocytes, and thrombocytes.

Erythrocytes are simply red blood cells that are responsible for oxygen carrying.

Thrombocytes, better known as platelets, are small fragments of a huge myeloid derived cell known as a megakaryocyte. These are responsible for clotting.

Leukocytes break down into two major categories: Granulocytes (so named as they contain staining granules in microscopy) and agranulocytes (cells that don't have these)

Granulocytes then break into three cell types: Neutrophils (phatocytose bacteria/fungi), eosinophils (attack parasites), and basophils (involved in inflammation (allergenic/non-allergenic)).

Agranulocytes break down into three major categories: monocytes (macrophages), lymphocytes, and dendritic cells.

Monocytes are a class of phagocytic cell. They are however most famous for being the ancestors of the macrophage, the most famous phagocytic cell in the innate immune response.

Dendritic cells are phagocytic cells and are the most famous antigen presenting cell (APC). However, it is to be noted that only immature dendritic cells are found in blood; active ones only exist in tissue.

Lymphocytes are subdivided into B-cell (humoral immune response by antibody release) and T-cells (cell-mediated response), which themselves break down into helper T-cells (B-cell activation) and cytotoxic T cells (apoptosis of abnormal cells). All of these can be further subdivded into active and memory versions.

So "number of different cellular elements in blood" is a vague question at best, as there are too many methods of classification and differentiation to result in an appropriate answer.

Answer 2

An average human has approximately 5l (5000mm3) of blood.

Red Blood Cells (Erythrocytes) are found at an average concentration of about 5 million per mm3, so there will be approximately 25,000,000,000 (25 billion) in your blood.

White Blood Cells (leukocytes) are found at an average concentration of about 6000 per mm3, so there will be approximately 30,000,000 (30 million) in your blood.

Therefore, your blood contains approximately 25,030,000,000 cells.

Platelets are not real cells, but for the sake of argument, let's include them.

Platelets are found at an average concentration of about 250,000 per mm3, so there will be approximately 1,250,000,000 (1.25 billion) in your blood stream.

If you define platelets as cells, then there are about 26,250,030,000 (just over 26 billion) cells in your blood stream.

Answer 3

Human blood contains more than four thousand components. The most important being red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma and platelets. It are these four major components that deliver oxygen, fight infection, ensure blood clots and keeps the blood thickness at a proper level.

Answer 4

what are three cellular elements found in whole blood