What are the Least Abundant of the Formed Elements?

You are already familiar with the human body, how it works, and blood circulation from the biology classes of your school life. In this article, you are going to venture out more about this topic. To begin with, blood is an essential fluid that circulates all over our body and provides important substances such as oxygen and nutrients to the body cells. Blood is composed of several formed elements. So, what are the least abundant of the formed elements? To your relief, this article covers the facts about the blood, and its formed elements along with what is the least abundant formed element in the blood, what formed elements are their types, and various other things.

1. What are the Three Main Types of Formed Elements?

Blood is composed of water and proteins and other solutes. Blood also helps in transporting metabolic waste products away from those cells. But that’s not the end of it. Most of the blood composition is made up of water, which is termed the intercellular matrix or Plasma. The formed elements are those cells and other fragmented cells which are suspended in the plasma. In simpler terms, the formed elements are referred to as the elements that form blood, excluding the plasma (the water present in the blood or intercellular matrix). There are mainly three types of formed elements present in blood:

• Red Blood Cells or RBCs: These are known as Erythrocytes. Red blood cells, or erythrocytes, are the most common of the produced substances of the formed elements. They are small, biconcave discs that are thicker at the periphery and thinner at the center. This shape offers a maximal surface area for gas diffusion along with flexibility for flowing through microscopic capillaries. Erythrocytes or the RBC are mainly important as it carries oxygen and, to a lesser extent, carbon dioxide.
• White Blood Cells or WBC: White blood cells, often referred to as leukocytes, are generally larger than erythrocytes but are also present in scarce amounts. Leukocytes perform the majority of their job in the tissues. They transport themselves via the blood. They offer protection against pathogenic organisms in the tissue spaces and can encourage or suppress several inflammatory reactions.
• Thrombocytes: These are known as platelets and are tiny pieces of large cells, known as megakaryocytes. Whenever the blood vessels tears or break, the thrombocytes or platelets close them. They are also the cause of blood clots.

2. What is the Smallest Formed Element?

The smallest formed element in our blood is the thrombocytes. The thrombocytes are the small fragments that are formed from large cells known as megakaryocytes, which are present in the bone marrow. Even being the smallest formed element, it brings about closing the tears and breaks in our blood vessels and forms blood clots. What are the least abundant of the formed elements? You will learn about it in the next segments. (See What does the Word Queue describe in Cell Biology?)

3. Which Formed Elements are Least in Number?

What are the least abundant of the formed elements? The Leucocytes, well known as White Blood Cells or WBC are the least in number among the formed elements of blood. The blood as in whole is composed of the formed elements and plasma. The plasma refers to the water content present in the blood which is 91%, and the formed elements are composed of RBC, WBC, and blood platelets also known as thrombocytes. Let’s discuss so more facts related to what are the least abundant of the formed elements in the next point. Must read What is the Building Block of Nucleic Acids?

4. What are the Least Abundant of the Formed Elements?

The White Blood Cells or WBC are the least abundant of the formed elements present in the blood. Also, known as Leukocytes, these are the least abundant of the formed elements. Even, being in such a small amount it serves the body by acting as a defense mechanism and prevents the body from foreign bacteria which cause severe blood-related problems. (See What Does It Mean When Your Blood Is Dark Red?)

5. What is the Least Abundant Formed Element in the Blood?

The leucocytes are the least formed element in the blood, furthermore, the basophils which are one of the components of leucocytes are the least abundant among all the elements that form blood. It forms about 1% of the total blood composition. Now you know what are the least abundant of the formed elements in the blood. Also, check out Why it is Not Possible to Change Hereditary Conditions?

6. Which is the Least Abundant Cellular Component of the Blood?

The least abundant cellular component of the blood is the leucocytes or the White Blood cells. These form up only 1% of the blood volume. They are structured as a larger version of the red blood cells and are indifferent to red blood cells as they are composed of only a nucleus and mitochondria. (See How much blood is in your body?)

7. What are the Least Abundant of the WBC?

The Basophils are the least abundant of the WBC among the granulocytes and non-granulocytes of leucocytes such as the neutrophils, eosinophils, and lymphocytes. (See Where are Most Triglycerides Stored in the Body?)

8. What is the Order of Most Abundant to Least Abundant Leukocytes in the Body?

The leucocytes or the White Blood Cells (WBC) are composed of granulocytes and non-granulocytes. The granulocytes are composed of neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils, whereas, the non-granulocytes include lymphocytes and monocytes. Among these, neutrophils are the most abundant as it makes up 60 to 70 % of the total White Blood Cells. The Monocytes make around 5-8% and the Eosinophils make about 2-3%. The Basophils are the least abundant making only 0.5 to 1.0% of the WBC. (See How many Types of Cells are There in The Human Body?)

9. What is the Most Abundant Cell in the Body?

The Red Blood Cells, also known as the Erythrocytes are the most abundant cell in the body. Around 97% of the body is composed of the RBCs or Red Blood Cells. As discussed earlier, red blood cells also form the maximum amount of blood. (See Why are The Cells Generally of a Small Size?)

10. What is the Most Abundant Component of Plasma?

Among the components of blood plasma, which are water, ions, proteins, nutrient molecules, wastes, and dissolved gases, the most abundant component of plasma is water. Water forms up about 90 % of the plasma. The least abundant component of plasma is fibrinogen of plasma protein. To your relief, plasma proteins are composed of antibody proteins, protein albumin, coagulation factors, and, fibrinogen. 

You now know what are the least abundant of the formed elements. This article may be concluded with the fact that the most important fluid that helps us to carry out oxygen and the proteins and nutrients, the blood, is composed of two things: the plasma and the formed elements. Plasma holds the water on a majority of it along with several other proteins, molecular wastes, and much more. And they formed elements consisting of mainly three elements the RBCs, WBCs, and blood platelets. The least abundant are the WBCs and furthermore the basophils which are the least abundant of the WBC. (Also read How the Cell can Read the Blueprint of its DNA?)