Circulatory System Flashcards
What does blood transport?
Oxygen
Carbon dioxide
Nutrients
Urea
(Heat, Hormones, Antibodies)
“Circulatory system” of unicellular organisms?
None
Diffusion across a surface membrane due to the large surface area to volume ratio
Deoxygenated blood leaves the heart to the lungs in…
Pulmonary artery
Oxygenated blood enters the heart from the lungs in…
Pulmonary vein
Why is a double circulatory system more efficient?
It pumps the blood twice and helps maintain a higher pressure so the blood can quickly reach all parts of the body.
In a single circulatory system, blood loses pressure as it passes through the gills
The job of the arteries and veins is?
Arteries carry oxygenated blood away from the heart
Veins carry deoxygenated blood towards the heart
Vein between the digestive system and the liver?
Hepatic portal vein
Explain the cardiac muscle cells
Cardiac muscle cells make up the wall of the heart
Made up of branching cells called muscle fibres that form a strong, mesh-like framework
The cells are striated and there are several nuclei per cell
This framework allows waves of contraction to spread through the heart in a coordinated way
The special properties of cardiac muscle cells?
It never gets fatigued (unlike skeletal muscle)
It contracts on its own without nerve stimulation.
Nerves are present only to adjust the rate of contraction
Systole?
Phase during the cardiac cycle when the heart is contracting
Diastole?
Phase during the cardiac cycle when the heart is relaxing
How are the left and right sides of the heart separated?
By a muscular wall called the septum
The function of valves?
Valves flow in only one direction through the heart and there’s no backflow of blood
Adaptation of the atria?
They have thin walls so they can be stretched while receiving blood but also contract with enough force to push blood through the valves into the ventricles
Blood supply of the cardiac muscle?
Coronary circulation: coronary arteries (to the heart)
capillaries
coronary veins (to right atrium)
What is the output of the heart?
The stroke volume and the heart rate determine the cardiac output
How can the cardiac output be changed?
Actions of the nerves
By hormone: adrenaline from the adrenal glands
Describe the reflex action that causes changes in cardiac output
An increase in CO2 is detected by receptors at the aorta and carotid artery
Nerve impulses via sensory nerve sent to the cardiac centre in the medulla
Medulla responds by sending nerve impulses along the accelerator nerve which increases heart rate and causes the heart to beat with more force and increases blood pressure
When CO2 levels return to normal, impulses are sent down the decelerator nerve and the opposite happens
How is a pulse created?
The blood leaves the aorta in short bursts of pressure causing the aorta’s wall to stretch.
As the ventricle relaxes, the stretched portion of the aorta recoils increasing the pressure inside it
A wave of stretching and constriction passing along the aorta and the arteries caused by a surged of blood at each heartbeat is known as the pulse
Structure of the arteries
They have a thick layer of elastic tissue allowing them to stretch and recoil
Thick smooth muscular walls that help control the flow of blood by constricting and dilating (same for arterioles but due to nerve ending)
Narrow lumen
No valves
Size of capillaries?
Wall: one cell thick
Tiny lumen that the RBCs can just fit through
How does the tissue fluid come about?
The squamous epithelial cells of the capillary wall are leaky…