# Red blood cells
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 4, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699 "2003-02-04T15:51:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Knighted\_Vorpal\_Sword](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knighted_Vorpal_Sword)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699/1 "2003-02-04T15:51:05Z")
What happens to red blood cells when they die? Do they just dissolve?
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### Author:  [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699/2 "2003-02-04T15:55:39Z")
They are “recycled” in the liver.
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### Author:  [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699/3 "2003-02-04T16:01:46Z")
They’re broken down in the liver; one of the end products of this breakdown is [bilirubin](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_381.html).
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### Author:  [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699/4 "2003-02-04T17:53:16Z")
…which is one of the reasons that urine is yellow
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### Author:  [@3waygeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3waygeek)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699/5 "2003-02-04T19:30:18Z")
Not normally, **CC**. According to the [Medline](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003595.htm), bilirubin is not normally a component of urine; its presence is indicative of liver or gallbladder problems.
However, as Cecil points out in the link I gave earlier, bilirubin is what makes poop brown.
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### Author:  [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699/6 "2003-02-04T21:56:22Z")
The spleen also recovers nutrients from dead or dying red blood cells.
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### Author:  [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2003, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-blood-cells/152699/7 "2003-02-05T00:04:37Z")
Urine is yellow due to urobilin which is the oxidized form of urobilinogen and does indeed derive from the breakdown of old red blood cells. Usually the body scavenges most of the iron from the rbcs to reuse.
And just in case anyone wanted to know, urobilinogen can also form another pigmented compound called stercobilin, which is brown and is excreted via the intestinal route.