How come red blood cells only live for 100 days?

Question

Just wondering.

Answer 1

because they don't have nuclei, which control the numerous chemical reactions within the cells.

Answer 2

Hahaa !

I have nooo ideaa (:

Im learning about that kinda stuff at school.. but, yepp, i got no idea.

(:

Answer 3

Really ?, are we going to be a Vampire every 100 days ?

Answer 4

Don't know - need to ask the creator

Answer 5

The usually live three to four months before they die. They live a short life because they have a hard job to do; to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide, both gases are very corrosive and toxic in high concentrations.

Answer 6

100 days is actually quite long for a cell type to live. Many cell type (many cellular mediators of the immune system) live only several days.

An analog to your question is ''why doesn't a car run for a thousand years without spare parts?" Now this seems like a silly question, everyone knows most automobile parts are subject to wear and tear and need replacing every once in a while.

The same thing is true for your body, all the chemical reactions needed to sustain life cause corrosive damage and cells can only withstand this for so long. Instead of endlessly repairing damaged cells (which is very error-prone and might lead to cancer) they are simply discarded and replaced by fresh ones.

This holds true for pretty much all cell types, with the notable exception of most neurons, they do last your lifetime.

Answer 7

easily damaged i suppose

although stem cells live for ecver, they just float around but when needed can turn into any type of cell e.g. tissue cell