alleryStart learning →After a blood sample is centrifuged, what makes up the thin pale layer called the buffy coat?
AErythrocytes and plasma proteins
BLeukocytes and blood platelets
CDissolved albumin and globulins
DFibrin strands and clotting factors
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: B. Leukocytes and blood platelets
1. Centrifugation sorts blood by density: the heaviest elements sink and the lightest float.
2. Erythrocytes are the heaviest, so they pack at the very bottom of the tube.
3. Directly above them sits a pale layer of the remaining formed elements, the leukocytes and the platelets, and that layer is the buffy coat.
4. Plasma proteins stay dissolved in the straw-coloured fluid at the top, so they never form the buffy coat.
_Source: OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology (CC BY 4.0), Ch 18 "The Cardiovascular System: Blood", section 18.1 An Overview of Blood_
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