In cell biology, extracellular fluid (ECF) denotes all body fluid outside the cells of any multicellular organism. Total body water in healthy adults is about 50–60% of total body weight; women and the obese typically have a lower percentage than lean men. Extracellular fluid makes up about one-third of body fluid, the remaining two-thirds is intracellular fluid within cells. The main component of the extracellular fluid is the interstitial fluid that surrounds cells.
The distribution of the total body water in mammals between the intracellular compartment and the extracellular compartment, which is, in turn, subdivided into interstitial fluid and smaller components, such as the blood plasma, the cerebrospinal fluid and lymph
Blood plasma is a light amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but which contains proteins and other constituents of whole blood in suspension. It makes up about 55% of the body's total blood volume. It is the intravascular part of extracellular fluid. It is mostly water, and contains important dissolved proteins, glucose, clotting factors, electrolytes, hormones, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. It plays a vital role in an intravascular osmotic effect that keeps electrolyte concentration balanced and protects the body from infection and other blood-related disorders.
A unit of donated fresh plasma
Bags of frozen plasma, from a person with hypercholesterolemia (left) and typical plasma (right)
Private Roy W. Humphrey is being given blood plasma after he was wounded by shrapnel in Sicily in August 1943.
Dried plasma packages used by the British and US militaries during WWII.