Page 12 - Science Focus (Issue 016)

Cells at ཱུᄗᡇᓒġŰ ġᶖ⊲ჽ៝ᾗ

Work! – All About Hematology

By Clara Tung 董卓衡

Introduction 引言

“In the human body, there are about 37.2 trillion 「在人體內，大約有37兆2千億個細胞，每天二十四
cells working 24/7 and energetically.” This informative 小時、精力充沛地在工作。」這句來自動畫《工作細胞》
and inspiring prologue of the animation, Cells at 的開場白說明 — 我們身體的每個部分都需要互相分工
Work!, suggested that every part of our bodies has to 合作，有些更要無間斷地工作。可愛的動畫人物生動地
“work” coordinately, and some constantly. The vivid
visualization of the cells categorized by the adorable 形象化了各種細胞，讓我們更清楚了解體內細胞的主要
characters has given us a clearer understanding of the 功能和它們之間的相互作用。
interaction and major functions of body cells.

Meet the Characters 角色介紹

Transport 運輸 Defense 防禦 Hemostasis 止血

In the Animation 在動畫中
• Energetic and responsible in her job • 精力充沛並對自己的工作認真盡責
• Easily lose her direction • 經常迷路
• Need to go through the narrowest road and deliver • 需要穿過最狹窄的通道為代表身體細胞的
oxygen to the corresponding “residents” which
represent body cells of various organs (Indeed, in 「住客」輸送氧氣（在現實上，微血管的確
reality, capillaries are super narrow that only one RBC 非常狹窄，每次只可以容許一個紅血球通
can pass through each time!) 過！）
In Reality 現實上
Background: 背景：
• Account for 45% of the blood components by volume [1] • 按 體 積計算，佔血 液 成分的
• Color: Bright red when carrying oxygen; dark red when 45% [1]
not carrying oxygen • 顏色：攜帶氧氣時呈鮮紅色；沒有
• Shape: Biconcave disc with no nucleus when mature 攜帶氧氣時呈紫紅色
• Each RBC contains 300 million hemoglobin molecules [2]. • 形狀：成熟時為雙凹圓盤狀，而且沒有細
Each hemoglobin contains four hemes and the 胞核
central iron atom in each heme can bind
one oxygen molecule. Therefore, each • 每個紅血球含有三億個血紅蛋白分子
hemoglobin can carr y four oxygen [2]，而每個血紅蛋白分子都含有四個血
molecules. 紅素，當中每個血紅素的中心鐵原子可以
Main function: 與一個氧分子結合。因此，每個血紅蛋白
• Transport oxygen from lungs to cells 可以攜帶四個氧分子。
主要功能：
• 將氧氣從肺部輸送到細胞

Red Blood Cell (RBC) 紅血球