What’s the colour of blood? Is your answer Red?
Well, red is not
the only blood colour available – there is a whole rainbow out there.
Blood also comes in blue, green, violet, and
even colorless varieties. All this is because different organisms have
different proteins. The
coloring matter of blood (hemo-chrome) is largely due to the protein in the
blood, responsible for oxygen transport.
Let’s explore the Colors
Raging Red- Humans and majority of other
vertebrates have Haemoglobin – an iron containing protein, which imparts the red color to the blood.
Haemoglobin is the respiratory pigment
that plays a vital role in ferrying oxygen around the body to your cells
and helping carbon dioxide back to the lungs where it can be exhaled. The iron
in the protein is responsible for the red tinge.
The spectrum
of light absorbed by hemoglobin differs between the oxygenated and deoxygenated
states. The arterial blood and capillary blood are bright red, as oxygen
imparts a strong red color to the heme group. Deoxygenated blood is a darker
shade of red; this is present in veins, and can be seen during blood donation
and when venous blood samples are taken.
Our blood in
veins appears blue because of the light-scattering properties of the skin and
the interaction of light with both the blood and the skin and tissue covering
the veins. But the actual color of the blood (human and some vertebrates blood)
is always red.
Bleeding blue - Crustaceans, spiders, squid,
octopuses, and some molluscs all have blue blood as they have the protein -
Haemocyanin . The differing structure of the pigment, as well as the incorporation
of copper atoms instead of iron, leads to the blood being colourless when
deoxygenated, and blue when oxygenated.
Going Green - The blood of most annelid and some
species of worms and some marine polychaetes use chlorocruorin to transport oxygen that imparts green
colour to their blood. The skink, however, seems to have high levels of
biliverdin in its blood, which also gives the blood a green color.
Paint it purple - In a limited range of marine worms,
marine invertebrates sipunculids, priapulids, and brachiopods. The purple
colour is caused by yet another different respiratory pigment, this time one
called haemoerythrin.
So next time
if someone asks you what the color of blood is. Instead of saying red, ask them
whose blood they are talking about?
Brilliant daksha.. Keep it up
ReplyDeleteWaiting for next blog..:)
I guess I am the only one who comes here to share my very own experience guess what? I am using my laptop for almost the post 2 years.
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