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Next use Word Exercise 7 to practice the spelling of prefixes and suffixes associated with conditions affecting red blood cells:
Now look at Root 4:
| Root 4 | Reticul- | from a Latin word reticulum meaning small net. Here reticul/o means reticulocyte. |
| Combining form | Reticul/o | reticulocyte |
A reticulocyte is a very young erythrocyte that lacks a nucleus and with cytoplasm that appears net-like when stained with basic dyes. The presence of many reticulocytes in the blood indicates active red cell formation in the bone marrow.
Now look at Root 5:
| Root 5 | Leuk- | from a Greek word leukos meaning white. Here leuk/o means white blood cell or leukocyte. |
| Combining form | Leuk/o | leukocyte |
The leucocytes are the white blood cells and there are many types and all
play an important role in defending the body against disease. The
combining forms leuk/o and leukocyt/o refer to leukocytes in general. The
combining form leuk/o is used in leukemia meaning a condition of white
blood, it refers to a malignancy in which there are too many leukocytes in
the in the blood.
Leukocytes are conveniently divided into two main groups, those containing
granules in their cytoplasm that are visible with an optical microscope
called the granulocytes and
those without granules, the agranulocytes.
There are three types of granulocyte, the neutrophil,
basophil and
eosinophil. The suffix -phil means love of or an affinity for
something, here it refers to the ability of cells to take up a particular
type of stain. Blood stains are used in histology laboratories to identify
different types of blood cell.
Now look at Root 6:
| Root 6 | Neut- | from a Latin word neuter meaning neither. Here neutr/o means neutrophil, a type of white blood cell that is only weakly stained with acid or basic dyes. |
| Combining form | Neutr/o | neutrophil, neutral (View a: neutrophil) |
Now look at Root 7:
| Root 7 | Bas- | from a Greek word basis meaning basic. Here bas/o means basophil, a type of white blood cell that stains readily with basic (alkaline) dyes. |
| Combining form | Bas/o | basophil (View a: basophil) |
Now look at Root 8:
| Root 8 | Eryth- | from a Greek word eos meaning dawn. Here eosin/o means eosinophil, a type of white blood cell that stains readily with an acidic red dye called eosin. |
| Combining form | Eosin/o | Eosin/o eosinophil (View an: eosinophil) |
| Erythr/o | = | red or erythrocyte |
| erythrocyt/o | = | erythrocyte |
| Leuk/o | = | white or leukocyte |
| Leukocyt/o | = | leukocyte |
| Reticul/o | = | reticulocyte |
| Neutr/o | = | neutral or neutrophil |
| Bas/o | = | basic or basophil |
| Eosin/o | = | eosinophil |