Lymph (Tissue Fluid)
Question 1: What is lymph made up of?
Answer:
Lymph is a clear white fluid composed of White blood cells, especially lymphocytes, the cells that attack bacteria in the blood.
Question 2: Which is the largest lymphatic organ in the body?
Answer:
The spleen known as the largest lymphatic organ is situated on the left side of the human body. The spleen controls the numeral of red blood cells and it also helps in fighting infection.
Question 3: Give two differences between blood and lymph.
Answer:
- Blood is a red-coloured fluid while lymph is colourless.
- Blood transports nutrients and gases from one organ to the other whereas lymph is responsible for the maintenance of the fluid balance in the body.
Question 4: What is the function of lymph in our body?
Answer:
Lymph transports fat food from the intestine to the venous blood and maintains the volume of the blood.
Question 5: What are the components of the lymphatic system?
Answer:
The lymphatic system includes all lymphatic vessels and lymphoid organs like the lymph nodes, thymus, and spleen as well as the lymphatic tissue like Peyer’s patches and tonsils.
Question 6: Name some diseases of the lymphatic system.
Answer:
Some of the common diseases of the lymphatic system are lymphedema, lymphadenopathy and cancers of the lymphatic system.
Lymphatic System
Body fluids are the medium of supply in the body. In the average 70 kg adult, human total body water is about 60 per cent of the body weight or about 42 litres. Two types of body fluids are:
- Intracellular Fluid: It is present inside the body cells. About 28 of the 42 litres of fluid in the body is inside the 75 trillion cells. The intracellular fluid contains a large amount of potassium and phosphate ions and proteins, moderate quantities of magnesium and sulphate ions and only small quantities of sodium and chloride ions and almost no calcium ions.
- Extracellular Fluid: The extracellular fluid is mainly present as interstitial fluid and blood plasma. The interstitial fluid (tissue fluid) is about 11 litres and plasma contributes about 3 litres in a normal adult. Plasma includes blood plasma and lymph plasma. Lymph plasma is similar to blood plasma except that lymph plasma has lower protein content. The interstitial fluid surrounds each cell. The plasma is the noncellular part of the blood and communicates continuously with the interstitial fluid through the pores of the capillary membranes. These pores are permeable to almost all solutes in the extracellular fluid except proteins.
Transcellular fluid is known as a specialized type of extracellular fluid. All the transcellular fluids together constitute about 1 to 2 litres.