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A biconcave disc. In geometry and mathematical biology, a biconcave disc — also referred to as a discocyte [1] — is a geometric shape resembling an oblate spheroid with two concavities on the top and on the bottom. Biconcave discs appear in the study of cell biology, as an approximation to the shape of certain cells, including red blood cells.
It also occurs in diabetes mellitus and is one of the causative factors for microvascular occlusion in diabetic retinopathy. So, the presence of rouleaux can also be a cause of disease because it will restrict the flow of blood throughout the body because capillaries can only accept free-flowing singular and independent red blood cells.
Red blood cells (RBCs), referred to as erythrocytes (from Ancient Greek erythros 'red' and kytos 'hollow vessel', with -cyte translated as 'cell' in modern usage) in academia and medical publishing, also known as red cells, [1] erythroid cells, and rarely haematids, are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate's principal means of delivering oxygen (O 2) to the body tissues—via ...
NRBCs are normally found in the bone marrow of humans of all ages and in the blood of fetuses and newborn infants. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] After infancy, RBCs normally contain a nucleus only during the very early stages of the cell's life, and the nucleus is ejected as a normal part of cellular differentiation before the cell is released into the bloodstream.
A feedback loop involving erythropoietin helps regulate the process of erythropoiesis so that, in non-disease states, the production of red blood cells is equal to the destruction of red blood cells and the red blood cell number is sufficient to sustain adequate tissue oxygen levels but not so high as to cause sludging, thrombosis, or stroke ...
Macroscopic examples of chirality are found in the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom and all other groups of organisms. A simple example is the coiling direction of any climber plant, which can grow to form either a left- or right-handed helix. In anatomy, chirality is found in the imperfect mirror image symmetry of many kinds of animal bodies.
Spherocytosis is the presence of spherocytes in the blood, i.e. erythrocytes (red blood cells) that are sphere-shaped rather than bi-concave disk shaped as normal. Spherocytes are found in all hemolytic anemias to some degree. Hereditary spherocytosis and autoimmune hemolytic anemia are characterized by having only spherocytes. [1]
Hereditary elliptocytosis, also known as ovalocytosis, is an inherited blood disorder in which an abnormally large number of the person's red blood cells are elliptical rather than the typical biconcave disc shape. Such morphologically distinctive erythrocytes are sometimes referred to as elliptocytes or ovalocytes.