What is an advantage of the simple organization of human red blood cells?
1 Answer
Jul 12, 2016
Efficiency!
Explanation:
The function of a red blood cell is to transport oxygen and deliver it to tissues throughout the body. It would be really inefficient if a lot of energy is required to sustain the red blood cells, especially because they circulate and are produced in large amounts.
The simple design of red blood cells requires little energy / oxygen for maintenance, leaving more oxygen to be delivered to all the other cells in the body.
Note that some say that the simple design also allows for quicker production of the cells. I disagree, because the maturation process of stem cells to red blood cells is quite complicated. The cells are only 'simplified' (loss of nucleus and other organelles) in the very last stage of their development.
