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Plasma Plasma is a clear, yellowish fluid. Plasma can sometimes appear milky after a very fatty meal or when people have a high level of lipids in their blood. Plasma is a mixture of water, sugar, fat, protein, and potassium and calcium salts. It also contains many chemicals that help form blood the clots necessary to stop bleeding. More than 92% of plasma is water. Plasma is the transporting medium for a myriad of hormones, electrolytes, sugars, waste products, and other substances. It is especially useful in transfusion medicine, as it provides the starting material for the preparation of critical blood-clotting factors, albumin and immune protein preparations. The clotting factor concentrates, prepared from large batches of pooled plasma, provide life-saving treatment for blood clotting disorders such as hemophilia. The plasma is the river in which the blood cells travel. It carries not only the blood cells but also nutrients (sugars, amino acids, fats, salts, minerals, etc.), waste products (CO2, lactic acid, urea, etc.), antibodies, clotting proteins (called clotting factors), chemical messengers such as hormones, and proteins that help maintain the body's fluid balance. |