TOX 4000 Study Guide - Final Guide: Xenobiotic, Red Blood Cell, Hemostasis

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Toxicology
• Course: TOX 4000
• Professor: Craig Bailey

Document Summary

Hematotoxicology is the study of adverse effects of drugs, nontherapeutic chemicals, and other chemicals in our environment on blood and blood-forming tissues. The vital functions that blood cells perform, together with the susceptibility of this highly proliferative issue to intoxication, make the hematopoietic system unique as a target organ. Accordingly, it ranks with the liver and kidney as among the most important considerations in the risk assessment of individual patient populations exposed to potential toxicants in the environment, workplace and medicine cabinet. The production of blood cells, or hematopoiesis, is a highly regulated sequence of events by which blood cell precursors proliferate and differentiate to meet the relentless needs of oxygen transport, host defense and repair, hemostasis, and other vital functions. Erythrocytes (red blood cells [rbcs]) make up 40% to 45% of the circulating blood volume and serve as the principal vehicle of transportation of oxygen from the lungs to the peripheral tissues.