Blood Lab

Name(s) ______

Date ______Period ______

Introduction: Blood is a tissue. It has many different cells with many different jobs. If you look at blood under the microscope, you will find three different cell types - red cell, white cells, and platelets. In a normal person, the numbers of types of blood cells are fairly constant. Sometimes, however, the number of cells will change due to a certain disease. Noticing this change in number can help a physician in the diagnosis of a person’s disease.

Procedures:

a. Each figure shows a sample of human blood cells magnified 1000 times. One way of doing an analysis on blood is to count the number of each type of cell present.

b. Count how many of each cell type is in each sample, and record your results in the table on the following page. Figure 1 is a sample of normal blood.

c. Once the numbers for the types of cells in each figure are filled in, you must calculate the ranks and give a disease diagnosis. The rank is referring to which type of cell was most common to least common. For example, if we counted 45 platelets, 21 red blood cells, and 18 white blood cells, platelets would be ranked 1, red blood cells would be ranked 2, and white blood cells would be ranked 3.

d. Use the case histories below to give a disease diagnosis for each figure. Remember, figure 1 is normal blood.

Case History

/ Blood Analysis / Disease Diagnosis
Male, white, age 28; has admitted to injecting drugs for the past 6 years, has pneumonia and skin cancer / Few white cells present / AIDS(acquired immunodeficiency sndrome)
Male, black, age 15; is always tired and short of breath / Red cells shaped like crescent moons /

Sickle-cell anemia

Female, oriental, age 14; has a fever, sore throat, and frequent nosebleeds / Blood cell rank: wbc=1, rbc=2, platelets =3 /

Leukemia

(leuk=white, emia=blood)
Male, white, age 68; has frequent headaches, nosebleeds, shows high blood pressure, a very red complexion / Red cells  a very high # / Polycythemia (poly=many, cyth=cell, emia=blood)
Female, white, age 22; has sudden appearances of purple marks under skin, bruises easily, blood does not clot easily after a cut / Very few platelets. Blood cell rank: rbc=1, wbc=2, platelets=3 / Thrombocytopenia purpurea
(thrombo=platelet, cyto=cell, penia=shortage, purpurea=purple)

Analysis:

1. What is the function of……

-Red blood cells

-White blood cells

-Platelets

2. Explain why a person with AIDS may also have pneumonia? ______

______.

3. The rank of blood cells in a normal person and one with polycythemia is the same. How can you conclude that the person has polycythemia?

______.

4. The rank of blood cells in a normal person and one with sickle-cell anemia is the same. How can you conclude that the person has sickle-cell anemia?

______.

5. Name a blood disease that shows

- too many blood cells. 

- too few platelets

- too few red blood cells

- too many red blood cells

- too few white blood cells

6. Explain why a person with thrombocytopenia purpurea shows many bruises or purple marks. ______

______.

7. Humans can become immune to disease in all of the following ways except

a) getting antibodies from our motherc) initiating the production of histamines

b) receiving a vaccination of that diseased) contracting and recovering from that disease

8. Which of the following is not true about red blood cells?

a) They transfer Oxygen from the lungs to the cells of the body.

b) They have no nucleus.

c) They secrete antibodies that react with antigens.

d) They transfer CO2 from the cells of the body to the lungs.