Page 28 - The Miracle of the Blood and Heart

THE MIRACLE OF THE
BLOOD AND HEART

contained in this protective layer, hemoglobin is also protect-
ed against degeneration. 15
Red blood cells have to open up a rather wide space inside
themselves to make room for the nearly 300 million hemoglo-
bin molecules that get packed into any single red blood cell. 16
These 300 million hemoglobin molecules will take up 90% of
the space in a single erythrocyte.
Red blood cells are the only cells in the blood which have
lost their nuclei. The organelles which they expel are immedi-
ately destroyed by the white blood cells, the body's disposal
operatives. What is surprising is that despite being deprived
of the nucleus, which carries all their data, red blood cells still
preserve the enzymes and proteins necessary for them to sur-
vive without difficulty during their 120-day lifespan. Thanks
to these special precautions taken for them throughout those
four months, they are able to remain alive. However, they are

now merely transporters that are unable to divide and hence,
unable to reproduce themselves as ordinary cells do.
As this one example will show, there is an enormous com-
plexity in the systems in the human body. Before you finish

Starting its life in the bone marrow, the young erythrocyte releases its nucleus
and absorbs the hemoglobin that it will be responsible for carrying (a). This ery-
throcyte later
assumes a disc-
like form for
traveling through
the blood vessels,
as shown in
the picture
(b).

Harun
a) b)
Yahya

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