Transcription
One of the abnormally shaped red blood cell or poikilocyte is target cell also known as codocyte and this is the topic of today's video welcome to medicosis perfectionalis We've been talking about hematology for a long time you'd like to get all of my hematology videos go to my playlist on hematology oncology of Course, you know that any abnormally shaped red blood cell is called a pico side pico side abnormal shape an iso side different size So let's talk about codocytes or target cells. It's a freaking poikilocyte of course There is increased surface to volume ratio why due to increased cholesterol of course you know that any cell membrane is a lipid bilayer of the lipid there is cholesterol so cholesterol contributes to the cell membrane of any cell including the red blood cells when there is increased cholesterol you'll have greater surface and this is known as a target cells. Why target? Normally the cell has this shape, okay? It looks like a hat like a hat like this Okay, and sometimes they call it sombrero cell or Mexican hat cell so if you look at this cell from above like this is your eye here and you're looking from above you will see what you will see a target cell The target cell is hemoglobin in the center, no hemoglobin, then hemoglobin again.
So there is a dark center. What's that? Hemoglobinized area surrounded by white ring and then surrounded by a second ring, but this one is red again. This is hemoglobin. So hemoglobin no hemoglobin hemoglobin now back to our story about the increased cholesterol leading to increased surface volume ratio this means that this cell is harder to destroy in a hypotonic solution You know remember your biconcave normal cell okay?
It can expand in a hypotonic solution. This is normal. What about a cell with a larger surface area? It can expand more So it's harder to kill by osmosis if you put in a hypotonic salt solution It's harder to destroy it because it can expand more due to increased surface to volume ratio So what are the causes of a target cell we have said increased cholesterol so maybe liver disease yes especially lc a t yeah this is not a standardized exam this is let us in cholesterol a sile transferase, one of the liver diseases. And it has increased cholesterol to phospholipid ratio.
Increased cholesterol will increase the surface to volume ratio of the red blood cell. So we will get the shape of this sombrero and if you look at it from above such as in a blood film in a cross section, you'll see your target. So what else? You see hemoglobin no hemoglobin hemoglobin hemoglobin this hemoglobin in the center is abnormal so hemoglobin apathy's such as thalassemia hemoglobin C also post splenectomy because any abnormally shaped red blood cell Normally gets removed by the spleen What if you don't have a spleen you'll get target cell. How about functional a splenia such as in sickle cell disease you can get target cells, but usually in sickle cell disease you get whole jolly bodies and we have talked about that before this is the end of today's video please don't forget to subscribe I'll see you soon be safe stay happy study hard