Blood is the body fluid in humans and other animals that delivers the essential materials for life to the body's cells. It has sometimes been called a fluid “tissue,” because like solid tissues it contains several types of cells which perform complex functions for the human body. Blood is a specialized fluid that constantly flows throughout your body. It’s made of plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Recall that blood is a connective tissue. Like all connective tissues, it is made up of cellular elements and an extracellular matrix. The cellular elements—referred to as the formed elements —include red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs), and cell fragments called platelets. The extracellular matrix, called plasma, makes blood unique among connective tissues because it is fluid. This fluid, which is mostly water, suspends the formed elements and enables them to circulate ... Functions of Blood Blood , the only fluid tissue in the body, circulates through blood vessels, driven by the heart's pumping action. It is categorized as one of the four fundamental tissue types, identified explicitly as connective tissue. Connective tissue's main role is connecting various body parts, providing structural support, enabling storage, and ensuring protection among the different tissue types-epithelial, muscle, nervous, and connective-connective tissue is most widely ...
