The Red Blood Cell: New Ideas About an Old Friend

Abstract

With the introduction of the microscope in the early 1600s, scientists observed “red particles” in circulating fluid. Borel (1620–1689) and Kircher (1602–1680), both pioneer microscopists, descibed these objects as “animals of the shape of whales or dolphins swimming in a red ocean … formed to consume the depraved elements of the blood” and as “worms floating in the blood stream and causing diseases”. The most detailed description at this time, however, was included in a letter to a friend by Leewenhoek, who mentioned that “blood taken from his hand consists of red globules, also floating about in a crystalline fluid”. He then speculated about their properties: “Those sanguineous globules must be very flexible and pliant if they shall pass through the capillary arteries and veins, and an their passage they change into an oval figure reassuming their roundness when they come into a larger room”, and mentioned the possibility of shape and deformability alterations of these cells after their exposure to different substances [1].KeywordsVascular Cell Adhesion MoleculeEndothelial Cell InteractionHuman Umbilical Vascular Endothelial CellInfected RBCsOxyhemoglobin Dissociation CurveThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.