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Human Biology > Module 14: The Respiratory System > Flashcards

Module 14: The Respiratory System Flashcards

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1
Q

Upper respiratory tract

A

The part of the respiratory system containing the nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, and pharynx.

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2
Q

Lower respiratory tract

A

The part of the respiratory system containing the larynx, trachea, bronchi, and lungs.

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3
Q

What are the two respiratory functions of the nasal cavity?

A

Olfaction and air conditioning.

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4
Q

How does the nasal cavity condition the air that enters the lungs?

A

There is a lot of surface area in the nasal cavity, and the tissue on that surface is very vascular and has many warm blood vessels. There is also a mucous membrane that is moist and sticky. When you breathe through the nasal cavity, the air is warmed by the blood, moistened by the mucus, and cleansed of particles by the mucous membrane.

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5
Q

Why must air be conditioned before it enters the lungs?

A

Air eventually reaches the alveoli, which are composed of delicate, simple squamous epithelium. If the air were not conditioned well, it would damaged that tissue.

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6
Q

Uvula

A

A small process that hangs off the soft palate and aids the soft palate in closing off the nasal cavity during deglutition.

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7
Q

Describe the composition of the trachea.

A

The trachea consists of about 20 pieces of cartilage shaped like the letter C. Dense regular connective tissue and smooth muscle hold these pieces of cartilage together.

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8
Q

Ventilation

A

The process of getting air into the lungs and back out.

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9
Q

How do the shapes of the right and left lungs differ from one another?

A

The right lung is made up of three lobes while the left has only two. The bronchus of the right lung is short and wide, and the bronchus of the left lung is slightly longer and more narrow.

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10
Q

Describe the structures of the lungs as they get smaller and smaller.

A
  1. Two primary bronchi
  2. Secondary bronchi
  3. Tertiary bronchi
  4. Bronchioles
  5. Terminal bronchioles
  6. Alveolar ducts
  7. Alveoli
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11
Q

Alveoli

A

Microscopic, balloon-like sacs composed of simple squamous epithelium, lined with capillaries.

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12
Q

External respiration

A

The process of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange between the alveoli and the blood.

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13
Q

What are the three steps of respiration?

A

External respiration, gas transport in the blood, and internal respiration.

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14
Q

What happens in the gas transport stage of respiration?

A

Oxygenated blood leaves the lungs and goes to the left heart and then to the body tissues, where it can supply the cells with O2. At the same time, the blood picks up CO2 from the cells. The CO2 is then transported back to the lungs so that it can be eliminated from the body.

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15
Q

Internal respiration

A

The process of O2 and CO2 exchange between the cells and the blood.

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16
Q

What is the function of the false vocal cords?

A

They help close the larynx to prevent food from traveling down the wrong pipe during deglutition.

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17
Q

What is the function of the true vocal cords?

A

They close off the larynx during deglutition by forming a tight seal across the airway each time you swallow. In addition, they produce sound.

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18
Q

Glottis

A

The passageway between the true vocal cords.

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19
Q

How is sound created?

A

First, the inhale, then delicate skeletal muscles move the true vocal cords into the airway to lightly close the glottis. Next, the exhale, which blows air past the two true vocal cords, causing them to vibrate. Other delicate skeletal muscles vary the tension and thickness of the true vocal cords which cause them to vibrate at different rates.

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20
Q

How does the body vary the volume of a sound?

A

In the larynx, the more forcefully that air passes through the vocal cords, the larger their displacement. Thus, you control the volume of the voice by controlling how forcefully air passes through the larynx.

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21
Q

What controls the pitch of sound?

A

The frequency of vibrations in the vocal cords. The more tense the vocal cords, the higher the pitch.

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22
Q

What gives the voice its resonance?

A

There are large air chambers in the body (the chest cavity, the pharynx, and the paranasal sinuses in the skull) and air vibrates within those chambers, giving the voice its resonance.

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23
Q

Articulation

A

The ability to make the intricate sounds of speech. Articulation is controlled by the tongue, lips, pharynx, larynx, palate, and teeth.

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24
Q

What three groups can the muscles of ventilation be divided into?

A

Muscles of principal inspiration, muscles of forced inspiration, and muscles of forced expiration.

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25
Q

What muscles are used for principal inspiration?

A

The diaphragm and the external intercostals.

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26
Q

What muscles are used for forced inspiration?

A

The diaphragm, the external intercostals, the sternocleidomastoid, the scalene, and the pectoralis minor.

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27
Q

What muscles are used for forced expiration?

A

The abdominal muscles and internal intercostal muscles.

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28
Q

Why does air flow out of the lungs just because the size of the thoracic cavity decreases?

A

Boyle’s Law. Boyle’s Law says that at constant temperatures, the pressure of a gas increases with decreasing volume and decreases with increasing volume. When the thoracic cavity gets smaller, there is less volume available to the air inside the lungs: the air pressure increases. The air now wants to flow from a space with high pressure to lower pressure, so it exits the lungs.

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29
Q

What are the two factors (besides the actions of muscles) that aid the lungs in expiration?

A
  1. The lungs have elastic fibers that naturally recoil to a smaller size after inflation, thus forcing the air out of the lungs.
  2. The surface tension of alveolar fluid. Inhalation forces the water molecules of alveolar to spread apart from each other, and they resist that, naturally decreasing the size of the lungs with exhalation.
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30
Q

Emphysema

A

A common lung disease can can be caused by smoking or exposure to air pollution. In the disease the walls of the tiny alveoli degenerate and and join together to make one large alveolus.

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31
Q

Why are larger alveoli not desirable (emphysema)?

A
  1. Many tiny alveoli have more surface area than one large alveolus, and they can more efficiently exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide.
  2. The walls of the alveoli degenerate and is replaced with scar tissue. This causes the lungs to lose their elasticity. That is why people with emphysema have difficulty exhaling, not inhaling.
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32
Q

Visceral pleura

A

A thin, slick membrane covering the surface of the lungs.

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33
Q

Parietal pleura

A

A thin, slick membrane covering the surface of the chest wall and diaphragm.

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34
Q

The pleural cavity

A

The narrow space between the visceral pleura and the parietal pleura. It contains a small amount of watery fluid called pleural fluid.

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35
Q

What are the two factors that aid the lungs in inspiration (besides the actions of muscles)?

A
  1. The negative pressure within the pleural cavity.

2. Surfactants.

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36
Q

How does the negative pressure within the pleural cavity help inspiration?

A

Since the pleural cavity is at a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure, it puts suction on the lung, holding it open. It acts as a counterbalance to the elastic nature of the alveoli and the surface tension of the alveolar fluid.

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37
Q

Pneumothorax

A

Air in the pleural cavity, which leads to a collapsed lung.

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38
Q

Surfactant

A

A molecule with a hydrophilic end and a hydrophobic end.

39
Q

Why must cells in the lungs produce a surfactant?

A

The force of surface tension in the alveolar fluid is so strong that to allow for proper breathing, specialized cells in the lungs must reduce its power with a surfactant.

40
Q

What does the surfactant produced by cells in the lung do?

A

The hydrophilic end gets close to water molecules in the alveolar fluid, and its hydrophobic end pushes the surrounding molecules away. This isolates water molecules from each another, reducing the surface tension.

41
Q

Infant respiratory distress syndrome

A

A disease in babies born more than 4 weeks premature characterized by the baby having great difficult breathing. At that age, the baby cannot make the surfactant for alveolar fluid, and the baby struggles to inhale.

42
Q

How can infant respiratory distress syndrome be treated?

A
  1. Surfactant can be artificially put into the lungs via the trachea until the baby matures.
  2. Cortisol injections for the mother. Cortisol stimulates the formation of surfactant in the developing lungs.
43
Q

Compliance

A

The ease with which the lungs inflate.

44
Q

Airway resistance

A

When air travels through a tube, the walls of the tube resist the flow. That’s called airway resistance.

45
Q

Where does most of the airway resistance in the lungs take place?

A

The bronchioles.

46
Q

Asthma

A

A disease that increases airway resistance. It results in a narrowing of the bronchi and especially the bronchioles.

47
Q

Why does each alveolus have a macrophage in it?

A

The macrophages destroy by phagocytosis any foreign invaders that make it into the alveolus. These macrophages are often called dust cells because they engulf tiny particles that may make it past the mucous membranes of the air passageway that precede the alveoli.

48
Q

Name the six layers of the respiratory membrane.

A
  1. The alveolar fluid
  2. Simple squamous epithelium of the alveolus
  3. Basement membrane of the alveolar epithelium
  4. Interstitial space
  5. Basement membrane of the capillary endothelium
  6. Simple squamous endothelium of the capillary.
49
Q

What are the four anatomical reasons blood leaves the lungs 100% oxygenated?

A
  1. The respiratory membrane is thin which allows molecules to diffuse across it easily.
  2. The carbon dioxide-oxygen exchange takes place over a very large surface area.
  3. Capillaries are narrow in the lung.
  4. The shape of the red blood cell.
50
Q

Why are narrow capillaries in the lungs important?

A

The narrow capillary pushes the erythrocytes against the capillary’s endothelium, making the exchange easy.

51
Q

What are the two physiological processes that increase the efficiency of external respiration?

A
  1. There is a controlled relationship between ventilation and capillary blood flow in the lungs. If your heart starts beating faster and harder, so that your blood starts flowing faster, reflexes coordinated in the medulla oblongata cause you to start breathing faster as well.
  2. The functional residual capacity of the alveoli.
52
Q

Aspirate

A

To take in by means of suction.

53
Q

Pneumonia

A

A general term that refers to an infection of the lungs. The infection can be viral, bacterial, or even the result of a protozoa. The infection leads to mucus-like fluid collecting in the alveoli and poor oxygen exchange in the lungs.

54
Q

Tidal volume

A

The volume of air inspired or expired during normal, quiet breathing.

55
Q

Under normal conditions, about how many liters of air are in the lungs?

A

2-3 liters.

56
Q

Functional residual capacity

A

The volume of air left in the lungs after a normal expiration.

57
Q

Total lung capacity

A

The maximum volume of air contained in the lungs after a forceful inspiration. Usually about 5-6 liters.

58
Q

Residual volume

A

The volume of air left in the lungs after a forceful expiration. Usually about one liter for adults.

59
Q

State Dalton’s Law.

A

The pressure exerted by a mixture of gases is equal to the sum of the partial pressure of each gas in the mixture.

60
Q

On average, what is the partial pressure of oxygen in the alveoli of the lungs?

A

104 mmHg

61
Q

On average, what is the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the alveoli of the lungs?

A

40 mmHg.

62
Q

Where does control of ventilation take place?

A

The medulla respiratory center of the medulla oblongata.

63
Q

What are the two groups of neurons in the medulla oblongata called?

A

The dorsal respiratory groups and the ventral respiratory groups.

64
Q

Pontine respiratory group

A

A group of neurons in the pons that aids the switch between inspiration and expiration.

65
Q

What sets the basic rhythm of breathing?

A

Specialized neurons in the ventral groups, called the pre-botzinger complex.

66
Q

How does the Hering-Breuer reflex work?

A

It prevents you from overstretching your lungs during vigorous exercise. When you inspire deeply, you stretch receptors in the bronchioles. As the receptors stretch, they start sending action potentials to the medulla. If they become frequent enough, they inhibit the dorsal exhibitory group, which stops inspiration and begins expiration.

67
Q

What does the chemical control system that affects the depth and rate at which you breathe detect in order to determine the controls it needs?

A

The level of carbon dioxide guides the chemical control of ventilation.

68
Q

What is the chemical reaction for the formation of carbonic acid?

A

CO2 + H2O = H2CO3 (carbonic acid)

69
Q

When carbonic acid release H+, what does it become?

A

A bicarbonate ion. (HCO3-)

70
Q

How does the level of carbon dioxide in the blood plasma affect the pH of the blood?

A

The more CO2 in the blood plasma, the lower the pH of the blood.

71
Q

What does the body do to get rid of carbon dioxide?

A

It increases the depth and rate of ventilation. The more ventilation that occurs, the more carbon dioxide leaves the blood.

72
Q

How does the respiratory system decrease the pH of the blood?

A

It will decrease the rate and depth of ventilation. This will keep carbon dioxide in the blood, lowering the pH.

73
Q

How does the body control the rate and depth of ventilation?

A

The control starts in the medulla, where there is a group of chemoreceptors on the surface, called the central chemoreceptors of the medulla oblongata, or medullary chemoreceptors.

74
Q

How do chemoreceptors in the medulla know to stimulate decreased or increased ventilation in response to high or low pH levels?

A

The blood supply supplies the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which bathes the surface of the brain. The chemoreceptors in the medulla sample the CSF, and since the pH of blood affects the pH of the CSF, the chemoreceptors are, indirectly, monitoring the pH of the blood.

75
Q

How does the respiratory system monitor oxygen in the blood?

A

Through receptors in the aortic arch and carotid arteries called the carotid and aortic body chemoreceptors.

76
Q

What is the most efficient way for cells to produce energy?

A

Through aerobic respiration. This process involves converting glucose (C6H12O6) into carbon dioxide and water and 36 ATP. This process requires oxygen.

77
Q

What are the three enzyme-controlled stages of aerobic respiration?

A

Glycolysis, the citric acid (Krebs) cycle, and the electron transport system.

78
Q

What is the first step of glycolysis?

A

Glucose + 2ATP = fructose diphosphate + 2ADP

79
Q

What is the second step of glycolysis?

A

Fructose diphosphate = 2PGAL ( phosphoglyceraldehyde)

80
Q

What is the third step of glycolysis?

A

2 PGAL + 2Pi + 2NAD(+) = 2 D-PGA + 2 NADH

81
Q

What is NAD(+)?

A

Nicotinamide adenenine dinucleotide. this molecule is formed in part by niacin and vitamin B3. It is often called a hydrogen accepter because it is designed to pick up hydrogen atoms from other molecules.

82
Q

What is D-PGA?

A

Diphosphoglyseric acid.

83
Q

What is the fourth step of glycolysis?

A

2 D-PGA + 4ADP = 2 pyruvate + 4ATP

84
Q

What are the ultimate products of glycolysis?

A

It took two ATPs to begin glycolysis, but it yielded 4 ATPs for a net gain of 2 ATPs. In addition, step 3 made 2 NADH molecules.

85
Q

What type of reaction is glycolysis?

A

It is an anaerobic reaction because it does not require oxygen.

86
Q

Where does glycolysis take place?

A

The cytoplasm of the cell.

87
Q

What happens in the mitochondrion to prepare the pyruvate made during glycolysis for the Krebs cycle?

A

The oxidation of pyruvate stage, also known as the acetyl coenzyme A formation stage.

88
Q

What is the reaction for the oxidation of pyruvate (acetyl coenzyme A formation)?

A

2 pyruvate + 2NAD(+) + 2 coenzyme A = 2 acetyl coenzyme A + 2CO2 + 2NADH

89
Q

Where does the oxidation of pyruvate (coenzyme A formation) occur?

A

It occurs as the pyruvate molecules cross into the matrix of the mitochondrion.

90
Q

What is the reaction for the citric acid cycle step I? (The Krebs cycle)

A

2 acetyl coenzyme A + 2 oxaloacetic acid = 2 citric acid + 2 coenzyme A

91
Q

What is the role of coenzyme A in step I of the citric acid cycle (Krebs cycle)?

A

It does not truly participate in the reaction. Instead, it is a carrier that “drops off” the two-carbon acetyl group so that it can bind to the four-carbon chain to make citric acid. The coenzyme A can then repeat the process with more acetyl groups.

92
Q

What is FAD?

A

Flavin adenine dinucleotide. This molecule is a hydrogen-accepter. It is composed of B2 vitamin called riboflavin.

93
Q

What is the second step of the citric acid cycle?

A

2 citric acid + 2ADP + Pi + 2FAD + 6NAD+ = 6 NADH + 2 FADH2 + 2ATP + 4CO2 + 2 oxaloacetic acid.

Human Biology (16 decks)

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