What path does a red blood cell take?

Answer 1

In the heart, the left ventricle contracts, pushing red blood cells into the aorta, the body's largest artery. From here, blood moves through a series of increasingly smaller arteries, until it reaches a capillary, the junction between arteries and veins. Here oxygen molecules detach from the red blood cells and slip across the capillary wall into body tissue. Now de-oxygenated, blood begins its return to the heart. It passes through increasingly larger veins to eventually reach the right atrium. It enters the right ventricle, which pumps it through the pulmonary arteries into the lungs, to pick up more oxygen. Oxygenated, blood reenters the left atrium, moves into the left ventricle, and the blood's journey begins again.

Answer 2

1. It travels through a vein in your leg, all the way up to the inferior vena cava of your right atrium.
2. The blood is then pumped to the right ventricle and to the pulmonary arteries, which lead to the lungs.
3. At the lungs, the blood gets oxygenated and returns to the heart via pulmonary vein.
4. It enters the heart again from the left atria and into the left ventricle.
5. It is then pumped out by the aorta to a smaller artery that reaches the right big toe.

Answer 3

Red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow and then released into the bloodstream. They circulate throughout the body, delivering oxygen to tissues and removing carbon dioxide. The lifespan of a red blood cell is about 120 days, after which it is removed from circulation by the spleen or liver.