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How certain skeletal muscles are seen red in colour even they lack haemoglobin?

The common misconception that blood that lacks oxygen turns blue probably comes from the fact that veins appear blue and blood in the veins is typically heading back to the lungs, hence depleted of oxygen.

It turns out that when blood is deprived of oxygen, it actually just turns dark red, as we often see when it is drawn when we are donating blood. When it’s oxygenated, it turns a brighter red. This red color primarily comes from the hemoglobin, which contains four heme groups. These heme group’s interactions with various molecules end up giving it the dark red or light red color we see. The hemoglobin itself is a protein that binds with oxygen to eventually be distributed throughout the body in blood.


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