Hello and welcome to a new series of the zero to finals podcast.

My name is Tom and this series is going to be on hematology.

In this first episode, I'm going to be talking to you about components of blood.

And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic,

you can follow along at zero to finals.comcom components of blood or in the hematology section of the zero to finals medicine

book. Let's get straight into it. Blood is made up of plasma, which is the liquid of the blood,

and this plasma contains red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

The plasma also contains lots of clotting factors such as fibrinogen, and this is what forms

blood clots. Once you remove the clotting factors from the blood, what's left is called the serum. So plasma subtract the clotting factors

becomes the serum. And serum contains glucose, electrolytes such as sodium and potassium,

and proteins such as immunoglobulins or antibodies, and hormones. So let's start by talking about the blood

cells or the cells that are found in the blood. And blood cells develop in bone marrow. And bone marrow

is mainly found in the pelvis, the vertebra, ribs and the sternum. And it's important to understand the different cell lines

to understand the conditions where things go wrong with these cells.

I strongly suggest you watch the video on the zero to finals

YouTube channel called

Understanding the Cells of the Immune System

and this will really help to get your head around

the development of different blood cells in the bone marrow.

All blood cells start with something called a pluripotent, ematopoetic stem cell.

And these are undifferentiated cells that have the potential to transform into a variety of blood cells.

Initially, they become myeloid stem cells, lymphoid stem cells, or something

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