Function | Body Fluids

Function

The functions differ depending on the body fluid. In general, however, they serve the transport of nutrients to organs and the removal of partially toxic metabolic products from them.

Blood

Probably one of the best known body fluids flows through our body within blood vessels, the veins and arteries and supplies it with vital nutrients and oxygen. In addition, the blood serves to remove potentially harmful breakdown products that are produced during metabolism in the organs. The motor of this circulation is the heart.

In the lungs, the blood is enriched with oxygen. One can imagine the blood as a mixture of solid and liquid components. The solid components include the red blood cells, which transport oxygen, the white blood cells, which are indispensable for our body’s immune and pathogen defense, and the platelets, which, for example, close a cut wound as quickly as possible by clumping together the blood, thus counteracting excessive blood loss.

The liquid part of the blood is also called plasma. This consists of over 90% water. The remaining 10% consists of dissolved substances such as proteins, hormones, nutrients, degradation products and electrolytes.

Lymphatic fluid

The lymph is also a body fluid and serves to transport excessive tissue fluid from the tissue bed back into the venous system of the blood, thus preventing water retention in the body. The lymph is transported via so-called lymph channels, in which lymph nodes are switched on in certain parts of the body. In the lymph nodes, the lymph is filtered and checked for possible foreign substances such as germs or tumor cells.

If such are present, the defense cells contained in the lymph nodes react by activating the immune system and fighting the intruder. Thus, the lymph and its associated lymph nodes also play an important role in the defence against infections and foreign bodies. Another important function of the lymph is the transport of proteins and fats from the digestive tract to the body’s nerves, from where they can be infiltrated into the liver for further processing.The proteins and fats are transported in the lymph in the form of compact globules called chylomicrons. Especially after a high-fat meal, the lymph from the digestive tract can therefore assume a whitish to yellowish color.