Blood plasma plays a vital role as a liquid blood component in the human body. Therefore, blood plasma is also used in the context of medical or pharmaceutical applications.
What is blood plasma?
A blood plasma examination is used by doctors to further diagnose various diseases. Blood plasma is the non-cellular or liquid portion of blood. In this regard, human blood consists of approximately 55% blood plasma. In healthy people, blood plasma has a clear light yellow color. While approximately 90% of blood plasma consists of water, the remaining components include electrolytes (mainly salts), hormones, proteins, carbohydrates and various degradation products. The exact composition of blood plasma varies from person to person – on average, gender also plays a role. Approximately 120 different important proteins are contained in blood plasma – antibodies and clotting factors (for the purpose of blood clotting) should be mentioned here, for example.
Medical and health functions, tasks and meanings.
Blood plasma initially performs important transport functions in the human organism. For example, plasma serves as a vehicle for blood cells, glucose, and carbon dioxide, among other things. Various proteins contained in blood plasma bind metabolic products and salts and ensure water balance between tissues and blood vessels. Thus, blood plasma plays an essential role in regulating fluid balance. Blood plasma also plays an important role in the body’s immune system – the antibodies contained in the plasma fight pathogens, for example, and thus protect the body from infections. The clotting factors contained in blood plasma ensure, for example, that blood loss as a result of injuries is limited. In medicine and pharmacy, the proteins contained in blood plasma are of particular importance. Blood plasma cannot be produced artificially, so donor plasma is used. Thus, blood plasma is used, among other things, in the treatment of severe and/or chronic diseases as well as in emergency medicine. Among other things, human blood plasma is an important basis for the production of various drugs that are used, for example, to combat hemophilia/blood disorders (including coagulation factor preparations), autoimmune diseases, antibody deficiencies, sepsis/blood poisoning or serious infections (for example, immunoglobulin preparations). Last but not least, blood plasma finds medical use not only for the production of medications – in direct form, plasma is also administered to patients suffering from high blood loss due to accidents or surgery, for example.
Diseases, ailments and disorders
If human blood plasma is impaired in terms of its ability to function, this often leads to health complaints in the affected person. Pathological plasma changes can occur, among other things, with regard to the concentration of contained proteins as well as with regard to the plasma volume. In so-called monoclonal gammopathy, for example, the concentration of an immunoglobulin belonging to the proteins is significantly increased in the blood plasma. Monoclonal gammopathy is often asymptomatic and does not lead to organ damage – however, the shift in the protein concentration in the blood plasma underlying the disease can lead to diseases such as multiple myeloma as it progresses: The cancer can be accompanied by symptoms such as weight loss, susceptibility to infections, anemia (anemia), and bone loss. Other forms of immunoglobulin proliferation result in various cases of liver disease, for example. A lack of antibodies in the blood plasma can increase susceptibility to infections in affected individuals. It is also important for a person’s health that the pH value of the blood plasma is in the basic range (approx. 7.3 to 7.5). If this is not the case, life is often threatened. An impaired carrier function of the proteins in the blood plasma can lead to various metabolic disorders in humans, while an impairment of the coagulation factors not infrequently results in clotting disorders.Last but not least, blood plasma can provide valuable information in the context of medical diagnostics – plasma changes present can often contribute to tentative diagnoses with regard to a disease present in the individual case. For example, so-called acute dysproteinemia (a disturbed protein distribution in blood plasma) can be the result of acute infections, necrosis (death of cells), or even heart attacks.
Typical and common blood disorders
- Acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- Acute myeloid leukemia
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
- Chronic myeloid leukemia
- Blood poisoning
