List of distinct cell types in the adult human body
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There is estimated to be about 30 trillion (3×1013) human cells in the adult human body, varying from about 20 to 40 trillion depending on the sex, age and weight, and a roughly equal number of bacterial cells.[1][2][3][4][5][6](this have not yet been measured in its enterity emperically, but is based on smaller samples of emperical observation). The human cells have so far been categorized into over 500 cell types[2] based on location and function within the body, there is usually a lot of variants of these types of cells depending on what surface proteins they have. Humans have about 1000 cells which have been given unique names listed here, based mostly on the HubMap database.
Cell type | % cell count | |
Erythrocytes (red blood cells) | 84.0 | |
Platelets | 4.9 | |
Bone marrow cells | 2.5 | |
Vascular endothelial cells | 2.1 | |
Lymphocytes | 1.5 | |
Hepatocytes | 0.8 | |
Neurons and glia | 0.6 | |
Bronchial endothelial cells | 0.5 | |
Epidermal cells | 0.5 | |
Respiratory interstitial cells | 0.5 | |
Adipocytes (fat cells) | 0.2 | |
Dermal fibroblasts | 0.1 | |
Muscle cells | 0.001 | |
Other cells | 2.0 |
In 1996 scientists revealed a 'map' of 16000 human genes.[7] This lead to estimates that humans likely had around 100 000 genes[8] (or regions that code for human proteins). However actual sequencing did not start before around 1999, and it wasn’t until 2003[9] that the first complete draft of a human genome revealed that there was roughly 20000-25000, as most DNA does not code for any protein but rather serve other more administrative functions or leftovers from the past. It is difficult to say that there have not been similar mistakes when estimating how many cells humans have as there are still substantial gaps in understanding human cells.[citation needed]