blood plasma

noun

|Updated on: 23 Jul 2018

Definition of blood plasma

: the pale yellow fluid of whole blood that consists of water and its dissolved constituents including especially proteins (such as albumin, fibrinogen, and globulins)

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Recent Examples of blood plasma from the Web

The more fearsome-sounding V-Plump, Ms. Barshop said, injects fillers and your own blood plasma into the labia majora to smooth and plump.

— laren stover, New York Times, "The Selfie That Dares to Go There," 7 July 2018
During fetal development, that RNA that’s excreted from cells into the blood plasma leaves behind clues about what development may have occurred.

— julia belluz, Vox, "Why doctors are so bad at predicting pregnancy due dates," 9 June 2018
The group was tasked with finding a way to stabilize blood plasma proteins so that soldiers could receive lifesaving transfusions in the field.

— deborah netburn, latimes.com, "Paul Boyer, who was awed by cells and won a Nobel Prize for deducing how they use energy, dies at 99," 7 June 2018
Terry lived in her truck for 11 months and sold her blood plasma to survive.

— marsha mercer, The Christian Science Monitor, "As sports betting expands, gambling addiction services fall behind," 18 May 2018
Then other cells cause your capillaries to leak blood plasma; its function is to envelop and slow down the invaders.

— Houston Chronicle, "YouDocs0514," 13 May 2018
Sulfate, which reacts with amino acids in the anophelins, strengthened the electrostatic forces between the proteins, making them better able to bind to the enzyme in blood plasma that causes clotting.

— vanessa zainzinger, Science | AAAS, "Mosquito spit can bust blood clots in mice," 10 Apr. 2018
In the test, the researchers studied blood plasma collected at UAB.

— lee roop, AL.com, "New blood test could lead to the end of colonoscopies," 2 Apr. 2018
The first clotting factor products, which came onto the market in the mid-1960s, were derived from human blood plasma, with thousands of donations combined to create one batch.

— jenny gold, Washington Post, "Of ‘Miracles’ And Money: Why Hemophilia Drugs Are So Expensive," 8 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'blood plasma.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of blood plasma

1842

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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Medical Dictionary

blood plasma

noun

medical Definition of blood plasma

: the pale yellow fluid portion of whole blood that consists of water and its dissolved constituents including proteins (as albumin, fibrinogen, and globulins), electrolytes (as sodium and chloride), sugars (as glucose), lipids (as cholesterol and triglycerides), metabolic waste products (as urea), amino acids, hormones, and vitamins — compare serum a(1)