Biomechanics - basic principles Flashcards
What is anatomy?
The study of biological form of an organism
What is physiology?
The study of the biological function of an organisms structure from the cell to the whole body
How does anatomy and physiology fit together?
The anatomy of an organism (e.g. structure) fits its physiology (e.g. function)
What is the factor that affects animal structure? What are some examples
The laws of physics the govern flow, diffusion, heat exchange, strength and motion
-eg flying insects limited in size due to O2 demand, aquatic animals are streamlined to reduce drag
What is the rate of exchange of matter/energy prpoprotptional to?
Surface area
What is the amount of matter/energy proportional to?
Volume
How does the exchange of material differ between single celled and multi celled organisms?
Single celled organism operate purely by diffusion directly with the external environment, multi celled organism have complex organ systems to facilitate diffusion
What is the structural organisation of animals? Use the heart as an example
1 - Cellular level, e.g. muscle cell 2 - Tissue level, e.g. cardiac tissue 3 - organ level, e.g. heart 4 - organ system level, e.g. respiratory system 5 - organism level, e.g. animal
What are the four types of primary tissue?
Epithelial tissue
Connective tissue
Muscle tissue
Nervous tissue
What is epithelial tissue?
The tissue that cover the outside and inside of body and organs
What is epithelial tissue made of? Why?
Tightly packed cell to prevent the free flow of matter in a and out of the body/tissue
What is the function of epithelial tissue?
- Creates internal environment to prevent injury, microbes, fluid loss from entering freely
- Absorption and secretion of chemical substances
- Sensor function
How does the epithelial tissue sensor vary from the inside and outside of the body?
Outside = pressure, temp etc Inside = pH, temp, ion concentration --> to help regulate normal bodily functions
What are the two types of proteins found in extracellular matrix? What else does it have in the matrix?
- Collagen and Elastin
- protein-carbohydrate complexes
What is connective tissue? What does it do?
- Cells spread throughout an extracellular matrix
- Provide support and rigidity to the other components inside the body
What is collagen?
A rigid protein that creates the strength and rigidity to tissue
What is elastin?
A flexible protein that creates the elasticity and resilience to the tissue
How do combinations of collage and elastin affect the properties of tissue?
Combinations of each give the function properties of tissue (e.g. the specific elasticity or rigidity of the tissue so more elastin = more flexible etc.)
What does elastin and collagen do when a tensile force is applied?
they stretch
Does collagen or elastin need more force to stretch a certain distance?
Collage needs more force
What is strain hardening?
It is when biological tissue is strained beyond its yield point so that it deforms and when it recovers becomes more resilient to deformation
What are the types of connective tissue?
- Loose connective tissue
- Adipose tissue
- Blood
- Fibrous connective tissue
- Cartilage
- Bone
What is loose connective tissue? Where is it located? what does it do?
- Loose network of fibres randomly scattered, fills space and provides packing
- Under the skin
- Holds organs is place
What does adipose tissue do?
Stores fat
What does blood do? How does this make it a connective tissue?
- Transport red and white blood cells, platelets and dissolved nutrients/waste
- Connective as without it the blood would not be transportable
What are fibrous connective tissue? What do they do?
- Dense network of fibres parallel to each other
- connect bones to muscles (tendons) and other bones (ligaments)
What is cartilage? What does it do? Where is it in the body?
- Rubbery matrix
- Distributes loads and provides lubrication
- Joints and outer ear (provides mild structural support without the rigidity of bone)
What is the bone? What does it do?
- Rigid matrix of calcium-containing minerals
- Supports body weight and creates structural integrity
What is muscle tissue (biologically)?
Elongated cells with proteins arranged so that a signal from a nerve cell can stimulate contraction
How are muscle cells arranged to create muscle tissue?
Bundled together to form muscle fibres, bundled fibres form muscle tissue
What are the three types of muscle tissue?
- Skeletal muscle
- Cardiac muscle
- Smooth muscle
Where is skeletal muscle in the body? What is its function? What is its physical description?
- attached to the bones (by tendons FYI)
- allows contraction to move the skeleton
- It is striated (striped)
Where is cardiac muscle in the body? What is its function? What is its physical description?
- In the heart ONLY
- to create a co-ordinate heart beat
- striated muscle with special areas of contact so that contraction signal is propagated to all muscle cells
Where is smooth muscle in the body? What is its function? What is its physical description? What is special about its arrangement in the body that aides its function?
- Found in the digestive tract
- to provide muscular action to the digestive, reproductive, urinary systems, blood vessels and bronchioles
- Has no striations
- It is overlapped so that there is even contraction, muscle and cardiac are aligned in one direction for contraction in one direction
What is nervous tissue?
Tissue that sense stimulus and enables communication between different parts of the body using electrical signals (nerve impulses)
What are the two types of nervous tissue?
- Neurons
- Glial cells
What do neurons do?
Generate and transmit nerve impulses
What do glial cells do?
Protect, insulate and nourish neurons
What happens to neurons when glial cells are damaged/die? Why is this? What medical condition is linked with a reduction in glial cells?
- The neuron will die as it is not being nourished anymore
- Stroke victims have less glial cells
What is an organ?
A structure that is made up of at least two, if not all four, primary tissue types
