Ch 42: Circulation and Gas Exchange Flashcards
At which level does the exchange of substances between an animal and its surroundings occur?
At the cellular level!
What types of substances are exchanged?
Resources that animal cells require - nutrients, oxygen - enter the cytoplasm by crossing the plasma membrane.
Metabolic by-products - carbon dioxide - exit the cell by crossing the same membrane.
What types of substances are exchanged?
Resources that animal cells require - nutrients, oxygen
What types of substances are exchanged?
Resources that animal cells require - nutrients, oxygen
How does exchange in unicellular organisms occur?
Directly with the environment.
How does each cell of an animal exchange molecules with the environment?
In certain invertebrates, by maintaining a body size and shape that keep many or all cells in direct contact with the environment = Direct exchange
In other animals, via a circulatory system that moves fluid between each cell’s immediate surroundings and the tissues where exchange with the environment occurs
What places a substantial constraint on the body plant of any animal?
The relationship between diffusion time and distance;
Diffusion time is proportional to (distance)^2
= Really slow for longer distances!
How does each cell of an animal exchange molecules with the environment?
In certain invertebrates, by
What is a central gastrovascular cavity?
In hydras, jellies, and other cnidarians, the cavity that functions in the distribution of substances throughout the body and in digestion.
An opening at one end connects the cavity to the surrounding water.
Fluid bathes both the inner and outer tissue layers = Facilitated exchange!
Only the cells lining the cavity have direct access to nutrients released by digestion.
Nutrients need diffuse only a short distance, to reach the cells of the outer tissue layer.
How does a flat body optimize diffusional exchange?
It increases surface area, which minimizes diffusion distances.
What are the three basic components of a circulatory system?
- Circulatory fluid
- Set of interconnecting vessels
- Muscular pump (heart)
What does the heart do?
It powers circulation, by using metabolic energy to elevate the hydrostatic pressure of the circulatory fluid, which then flows through the vessels and back to the heart.
What are the functions of the circulatory system?
- Connecting the aqueous environment of the body cells to the organs that exchange gases
- Absorb nutrients
- Dispose of wastes
How do the basic types of circulatory systems vary?
- Open/closed
- Number of circuits in the body
- Pumps differing in structure and organization
What is an open circulatory system?
In which the circulatory fluid bathes the organs directly. Commonly in arthropods and molluscs.
What is hemolymph?
The circulatory fluid of animals with an open circulatory system, which is also the interstitial fluid that bathes body cells.
How does hemolymph move across the circulatory system?
Contraction of one or more hearts pumps the hemolymph through the circulatory vessels into interconnected sinuses, spaces surrounding the organs.
Within the sinuses, chemical exchange occurs between the hemolymph and body cells.
Relaxation of the heart draws hemolymph back in through pores, which are equipped with valves that close when the heart contracts.
Body movements help circulate the hemolymph by periodically squeezing the sinuses.
What does the open circulatory system of larger crustaceans consist of?
A more extensive system of vessels, as well as an accessory pump.
What is a closed circulatory system?
In which the circulatory fluid, blood, is confined to vessels and is distinct from the interstitial fluid.
How does exchange occur in a closed circulatory system?
- One or more hearts pump blood into large vessels that branch into smaller ones –> Infiltrates the organs
- Chemical exchange occurs between the blood & interstitial fluid, and the interstitial fluid & body cells.
What species have closed circulatory systems?
Annelids, cephalopods, all vertebrates
What are the advantages of an open circulatory system?
- Lower hydrostatic pressures = Less costly in energy expenditure
- Can serve additional functions
What are the advantages of a closed circulatory system?
- Relatively high blood pressures = Effective delivery and oxygen and nutrients to larger, more active animals
- Suited to regulating the distribution of blood to different organs
What is another common name for the closed circulatory system?
Cardiovascular system
What are the three main types of blood vessels?
- Arteries
- Veins
- Capillaries
How does blood flow within each blood vessel?
In only one direction!
What are arteries?
Blood vessels carry blood away from the heart, to organs throughout the body.
Arteries within organs branch into smaller arteries (arterioles), that convey blood to the capillaries.
What are capillaries?
Microscopic vessels with very thin, porous walls.
What are capillary beds?
A network of capillaries that infiltrate every tissue, passing within a few cell diameters of every cell in the body.
What is exchanged across the thin walls of capillaries?
Chemicals included dissolved gases, exchanged by diffusion between the blood and the interstitial fluid around the tissue cells.
Capillaries converge into _______ at their downstream end.
Venules
What are veins?
Venules converge into veins, the vessels that carry blood back to the heart.
How are arteries and veins distinguished?
By the DIRECTION of blood flow, not by oxygen content.
Arteries carry blood from the heart _______ capillaries, while veins return blood to the heart ______ capillaries.
Toward; From
How many muscular chambers do the hearts of vertebrates contain?
At least two!
What are atria? What are ventricles?
Atria are the chambers that receive the blood entering the heart;
Ventricles are the chambers that pump blood out of the heart.
What is single circulation?
An arrangement in which the blood passes through the heart once in each complete circuit, seen in fish.
How does single circulation work in fish?
Blood collects in the atrium –> Enters the ventricle.
The ventricle contracts –> Pumps blood to the arteries leading to the gills.
The gill capillaries diffuse oxygen to the blood, as carbon dioxide leaves the blood.
Blood travels to the rest of the body from the gills –> Releasing oxygen before the blood returns to the heart.
What are the disadvantages of a single circuit in fish?
- Blood pressure drops passing through the gill capillaries = Reduced efficiency of the circulation
- Heart is forced to rely upon deoxygenated blood for its own metabolic needs
What is a double circulation system?
In which blood moving between the heart and the rest of the body - SYSTEMIC CIRCUIT - is separated from the blood travelling between the heart and the respiratory surface - PULMONARY CIRCUIT.
What is a pulmocutaneous circuit?
Incomplete separation of systemic and pulmonary circuits.
In frogs and other amphibians, who have a heart with three chambers - two atria and one ventricle.
The right atrium collects blood from the body;
The left atrium collects blood from respiratory surfaces.
Both atria empty into a single ventricle, with a ridge within the ventricle separating the two flows of blood.
The animals respire through lungs and skin –> Can control the relative amount of blood flowing.
Which species have four-chambered hearts?
Mammals and birds - two atria, two ventricles.
Left side of heart: Receives and pumps oxygen-rich blood
Right side of heart: Receives and pumps oxygen-poor blood.
What are the advantages of four-chambered hearts?
-Separate systemic and pulmonary circuits = Independent regulation of blood pressure in the two circuits = Powerful!
How does the mammalian cardiovascular system work?
- Contraction of the right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs via the pulmonary arteries;
- Blood flows through capillary beds in the left and right lungs, loading oxygen and unloading carbon dioxide;
- Oxygen-rich blood returns from the lungs via the pulmonary veins, to the left atrium of the heart;
- Oxygen-rich blood flows into the heart’s left ventricle, pumping oxygen-rich blood out to body tissues, through the systemic circuit.
- Blood leaves the left ventricle via the aorta, conveying blood to the arteries, throughout the body.
a. Aorta –> Coronary arteries, supplying blood to the heart muscle;
b. Aorta –> Capillary beds in the head and arms;
c. Aorta –> Abdomen, supplying oxygen-rich blood to arteries leading to capillary beds in the abdominal organs and legs: oxygen from the blood into the tissues, carbon dioxide into the blood. - Capillaries rejoin, forming venules, conveying blood to veins.
- Oxygen-poor blood from the head, neck, and forelimbs is channelled into a large vein - superior vena cava.
- The inferior vena cava - another large vein - drains blood from the trunk and hind limbs.
- The two vena cava empty their blood into the right atrium: oxygen-poor blood flows into the right ventricle.
The dual circuits operate ________ in a mammalian cardiovascular system.
Simultaneously
What is the mammalian heart consisted of?
Mostly cardiac muscle
What are the characteristics of the heart’s components?
Two atria: Relatively thin walls, serve as collection chambers for blood returning to the heart from lungs/other body tissues.
Two ventricles: Thicker walls, contract much more forcefully than the atria.
Where does the blood that enters the atria flow into?
The ventricles, while all heart chambers are relaxed (mostly).
The remainder is transferred by contraction of the atria before the ventricles begin to contract.
What is a characteristic of the left ventricle?
It pumps blood to all body organs through the systemic circuit, thus contracting with greater force.
The left and right ventricles pump _______ volumes of blood during each contraction.
Equal
What is the cardiac cycle?
One complete sequence of pumping and filling of the heart.
When do the chambers fill with blood?
When the heart relaxes.
What are the two phases of the cardiac cycle?
- Systole: Contraction phase
2. Diastole: Relaxation phase
What is the cardiac output?
The volume of blood each ventricle pumps per minute, determined by…
- HEART RATE (rate of contraction)
- STROKE VOLUME (amount of blood pumped/contraction).
What is the function of the heart valves?
To prevent backflow, keep blood moving in the correct direction.
What are the characteristics of heart valves?
- Made of flaps of connective tissue
- Open when pushed from one side, close when pushed from the other
What is an atrioventricular (AV) valve?
Lies between each atrium and ventricle.
Anchored by strong fibres that prevent them from turning inside out.
Pressure generated by the ventricles’ powerful contraction closes the AV valve –> Blood flows back into the atria.
What are the semilunar valves?
Located at the two exists of the heart…
- Where the aorta leaves the left ventricle;
- Where the pulmonary artery leaves the right ventricle
Pushed open by the pressure generated during ventricle contraction.
When ventricles relax, blood pressure built up in the aorta closes the semilunar valves, preventing backflow.
Some cardiac muscle cells are __________.
Autorhythmic: They contract and relax repeatedly without any signal from the nervous system.
How are the contractions of the cardiac muscle cells coordinated?
The sinoatrial (SA) node, “pacemaker”, is a cluster of cells that sets the rate and timing at which all cardiac muscle cells contract.
How does the SA node work?
It produces electrical impulses, which spread rapidly to the cardiac muscle cells.
- Impulses spread rapidly through walls of atria –> Atria contract in unison
- Impulses reach other autorhythmic cells located in the wall between the left and right atria. These cells form a relay point, the atrioventricular (AV) node.
a. This impulse delay allows the atria to completely empty, before the ventricles contract. - Signals from the AV node –> Heart apex –> Ventricular walls, thanks to bundle branches and Purkinje fibres.
These impulses generate currents that are conducted to the skin, via body fluids.
What is an electrocardiogram (ECG)
In which the SA node currents are recorded by electrodes placed on the skin.