32. Homeostasis and Endocrine Signaling

Question 1

anatomy

Answer 1

structure of an organism

Question 2

physiology

Answer 2

processes and functions of an organism

Question 3

epithelial tissue

Answer 3

sheets of tightly packed cells that line organs and body cavities as well as external surfaces; also called epithelium

Question 4

nervous tissue

Answer 4

tissue made up of neurons and supportive cells

Question 5

neuron

Answer 5

a nerve cell; the fundamental unit of the nervous system, having structure and properties that allow it to conduct signals by taking advantage of the electrical charge across its plasma membrane

Question 6

glia (glial cells)

Answer 6

cells of the nervous system that support, regulate, and augment the functions of neurons

Question 7

muscle tissue

Answer 7

tissue consisting of long muscle cells that can contract, either on its own or when stimulated by nerve impulses

Question 8

skeletal muscle

Answer 8

a type of striated muscle that is generally responsible for the voluntary movements of the body

Question 9

smooth muscle

Answer 9

a type of muscle lacking the striations of skeletal and cardiac muscle because of the uniform distribution of myosin filaments in the cells; responsible for involuntary body activities

Question 10

cardiac muscle

Answer 10

type of striated muscle that forms the contractile wall of the heart. Its cells are joined by intercalated disks that relay the electrical signals underlying each heartbeat

Question 11

connective tissue

Answer 11

animal tissue that functions mainly to bind and support other tissues, having a sparse population of cells scattered through an extracellular matrix

Question 12

macrophage

Answer 12

a phagocytic cell present in many tissues that functions in innate immunity by destroying microbes and in acquired immunity as an antigen-presenting cell.

Question 13

regulator

Answer 13

animal for which mechanisms of homeostasis moderate internal changes in a particular variable in the face of external fluctuation of that variable

Question 14

conformer

Answer 14

animal for which an internal condition conforms to (changes in accordance with) changes in an environmental variable

Question 15

interstitial fluid

Answer 15

fluid filling the spaces between cells in most animals

Question 16

homeostasis

Answer 16

steady-state physiological condition of the body

Question 17

set point

Answer 17

in homeostasis in animals, a value maintained for a particular variable, such as body temperature or solute concentration

Question 18

stimulus

Answer 18

in feedback regulation, a fluctuation in a variable that triggers a response

Question 19

sensor

Answer 19

in homeostasis, a receptor that detects a stimulus

Question 20

response

Answer 20

(1) In cellular communication, the change in a specific cellular activity brought about by a transduced signal from outside the cell. (2) In feedback regulation, a physiological activity triggered by a change in a variable.