Excretion Flashcards
Define excretion
The removal of metabolic waste from the body
Define metabolic waste
Waste substances that may be toxic or are produced in excess by the reactions inside the cells.
What is the difference between egestion and excretion?
Egestion is pooping undigested food
Excretion is the removal of metabolic waste from cells
Define deamination
The removal of the amine group from an amino acid to produce ammonia.
Name 2 products that are produced in large amounts and need to be excreted. What are they produced from?
CO2 from respiration
Nitrogen containing compounds produced in the liver from excess amino acids (e.g. urea)
How is carbon dioxide excreted from the body?
It passes into the bloodstream from cells and is transported in the form of hydrogencarbonate ions to the lungs where it diffuses into the alveoli and is excreted when we exhale.
How is urea excreted from the body?
Deamination occurs which produces urea. Urea is then passed into the bloodstream and is transported to the kidneys in a solution dissolved in the plasma. It then becomes a part of urine in the kidneys
What are the three main effects that excess carbon dioxide has on the body?
When hydrogencarbonate ions are formed, as mentioned earlier, hydrogen ions are also formed with the help of carbonic anhydrase. The hydrogen ions then combine with haemoglobin and compete with oxygen meaning less oxygen is carried in the blood.
The carbon dioxide can directly combine with haemoglobin to make carbaminohaemoglobin which has a lower affinity for oxygen.
It can also cause respiratory acidosis. This happens from when carbon dioxide dissolves in the blood plasma and then combines with water to produce carbonic acid which dissociates to produce hydrogen ions
Why is having extra hydrogen ions in the blood a bad thing? How do you bring it back to normal? What do proteins in the blood act as?
Because it makes the blood more acidic which sends a signal to the medulla oblongata causing an increase in breathing rate.
Proteins act as buffers to resist the change in pH
What happens if extra hydrogen ions in the blood change the pH to below 7.35?
You have slowed breathing, a headache, drowsiness, restlessness, confusion and respiratory acidosis.
What diseases can induce respiratory acidosis?
Emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, blockage of the airways.
What can’t the body store?
Proteins and amino acids
Why aren’t amino acids excreted from the body?
Because they contain too much energy so it would be wasteful
What happens to excess amino acids?
They are transported to the liver and deaminated (oxygen needs to be present) to produce ammonia and keto acid. Ammonia and carbon dioxide combine to form urea and are then excreted. Keto acid can be used in respiration or converted to a carbohydrate and stored.
Define hepatic portal vein.
A blood vessel with capillaries at both ends, it carries blood from the digestive system to the liver.
Define Kupffer cells.
To breakdown and recycle old red blood cells
Define bilirubin
A waste product from the breakdown of haemoglobin
What is the liver’s main important role?
Homeostasis
Why does the liver need a good supply of blood?
To ensure that homeostasis can occur
How many sources is the liver supplied from?
What are the 2 sources?
2 sources
The heart and the digestive system
What source does the liver receive oxygenated blood from? And how does it get to the liver?
The heart
The oxygenated blood gets to the liver by travelling from the aorta to the hepatic artery.
Why do hepatocytes need oxygenated blood?
For aerobic respiration to create ATP for metabolic processes
What source does the liver receive deoxygenated blood from? how does it get to the liver?
The digestive system
It gets to the liver via the hepatic portal vein
Why does the liver need blood from the digestive system?
Because the blood is rich in products but it may contain toxic compounds that have been absorbed in the intestine
How does the deoxygenated blood leave the liver?
It leaves via the hepatic vein where it rejoins the vena cava and returns to normal circulation
Arteries contain ….. blood
Veins contain …… blood
Oxygenated blood
Deoxygenated blood
Where is the bile duct found?
And name 2 functions it has.
Connected to the liver
A digestive function and an excretory function
What does the bile duct do?
It carries bile from the liver to the gall bladder where it’s stored until it’s needed to aid the digestion of fats in the small intestine.
What is the liver divided into? And what is that then divided into?
Lobes which are then divided into cylindrical lobules.
What happens to the hepatic artery and portal vein once they enter the liver?
They split into smaller and smaller vessels which run between and parallel to the lobules.
What are the smaller vessels called when they run parallel to the lobules in the liver?
Inter-lobular vessels
True or false
The inter-lobular vessels never enter the lobules at intervals.
False, they do
Does the blood from the two vessels in the liver mix?
Yes
Once the blood in the liver from the two vessels mix, what does the blood enter?
They enter the sinusoid.
What is the sinusoid?
It is a special chamber lined by hepatocytes.
What happens when the blood reaches the end of the sinusoid?
The blood empties into an intra-lobular vessel (not inter) which is a branch of the hepatic vein. The branches join together to form the hepatic vein and the blood is then drained from the liver.
What happens when the blood passes along the sinusoid?
The hepatocytes remove and pass molecules from/into the blood.
Name a function of hepatocytes.
To produce bile
Where is bile released one the hepatocytes have manufactured it?
It is released into bile canaliculi which join together to form the bile duct.
Describe the appearance of hepatocytes.
They are relatively unspecialised but they have microvilli on their surface and they are a cuboidal shape.
Name 5 out of 6 metabolic functions of hepatocytes.
- Protein synthesis
- Transformation of carbohydrates
- Storage of carbohydrates
- Synthesis of cholesterol
- Synthesis of bile salts
- Detoxification
Is a hepatocyte’s cytoplasm dense and specialised? Explain.
Yes because it has a large amount of organelles for metabolic processes.
What are Kupffer cells? What is one of there products?
They are specialised macrophages that move about in sinusoids.
One of their products, from the breakdown of old red blood cells, is bilirubin which is excreted as part of bile or faeces (it’s the brown pigment in poop lol)
Define urea.
An excretory product formed from the breakdown of excess amino acids
Define ornithine cycle.
The process in which ammonia is converted to urea.
Where does the ornithine cycle take place?
Part of it occurs in the cytosol and part of it occurs in the mitochondria as ATP is used.
Define detoxification.
The conversion of toxic molecules to less toxic molecules
Name 5 out of 6 functions of the liver.
- Control of: blood glucose levels, amino acid levels, lipid levels
- Synthesis of: Red blood cells in the fetus, bile, plasma proteins, cholesterol
- Storage of: Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin B, iron, glycogen
- Detoxification of: Alcohol, drugs
- Breakdown of hormones
- Destruction of red blood cells
How many grams of protein do we need each day?
40-60 grams
Why can’t excess amino acids be stored?
Because their amine group makes them toxic.
Name 2 processes that amino acids undergo in order for their toxic amine group to be excreted.
Deamination and the ornithine cycle
What does deamination produce?
Ammonia and keto acid
Name the characteristics of ammonia
It is very soluble and highly toxic
In order for deamination to occur, what element needs to be present?
Oxygen
What is more toxic, ammonia or urea?
What is more soluble?
Ammonia
Ammonia
What happens when ammonia combines with carbon dioxide?
Urea and water is formed.
What happens once urea is formed in the liver?
It’s transported around the body in the blood to the kidneys where it is filtered out and concentrated in urine
Name a product, produced in the body, that the liver can detoxify.
What products, that aren’t produced in the body, can the liver detoxify?
Hydrogen peroxide
Alcohol and drugs
How are the toxins rendered harmless during detoxification? 4 processes
Oxidation, reduction, methylation or combination with another molecule
Name an enzyme in the liver that is involved in detoxification and name the product that the enzyme helps detoxify.
Catalase helps detoxify hydrogen peroxide to oxygen and water
True or false
Catalase has a high turn over number.
What is the turn over number?
True
It can detoxify 5 million hydrogen peroxides in one minute.
What does ethanol do to the body?
It depresses nerve activity
True or false
Ethanol does have chemical potential energy that can be used in metabolism.
False, it has the chemical potential energy that can be used in RESPIRATION
What enzyme aids the breakdown of ethanol?
Where is this enzyme found?
What does it produce?
Ethanol dehydrogenase
In hepatocytes
Ethanal
How is ethanol and ethanal broken down?
They are dehydrogenated
What enzyme aids the breakdown of ethanal?
What does it produce?
Ethanal dehydrogenase
Ethanoate/acetate
Once ethanal is broken down to produce acetate, what happens to the acetate?
The acetate combines with coenzyme A to form acetyl coA. This enters respiration.
When ethanol and ethanal is broken down, what is released?
What happens to this element?
Hydrogen
Hydrogen combines with NAD to form reduced NAD
Define oxidation and reduction in terms of oxygen and in terms of hydrogen transfer.
Oxygen: Oxidation= Gain of oxygen. Reduction= Loss of oxygen
Hydrogen: Oxidation= Loss of hydrogen. Reduction= Gain of hydrogen
What is the function of NAD in terms of fatty acids?
What happens when the liver has to detoxify too much alcohol?
NAD oxidises and breaks down fatty acids so they can be used in respiration.
There is insufficient NAD so less fatty acids are broken down. The fatty acids are converted back to lipids and are stored in hepatocytes, enlarging the liver.