Module 3.2 - Transport in Animals Flashcards
What factors affect the need for a transport system?
- Size
- SA:vol ratio
- Level of metabolic activity
How does size affect the need for a transport system?
- Cells further from surface, diffusion pathway increases
- Diffusion rate reduced + diffusion too slow to supply all requirements
- Outer layers of cells use up all supplies so less would reach cells deep in body
How does surface area to volume ratio affect the need for a transport system?
-Larger organisms have larger SA:vol ratio so each g of SA has smaller body surface for exchange
How does level of metabolic activity affect the need for a transport system?
- Animals get energy from food for movement
- Releasing energy from food by aerobic respiration requires oxygen
- In animal is active, cells need good supplies of nutrients to supply energy for movement
- Animals that keep themselves warm need even more energy
What are the features of a good transport system?
-Fluid/medium to carry nutrients, oxygen + wastes around body (blood)
-Pump to create pressure to push fluid around body (heart)
-Exchange surfaces that enable substances to enter blood + leave again where needed (capillaries)
For efficiency:
> Tubes/vessels to carry blood by mass flow
> 2 circuits: one to pick up oxygen (pulmonary) + one to deliver oxygen to respiring tissues (systemic)
What is the route of blood through a single circulatory system (e.g. fish)?
heart –> gills –> body –> heart
What is the route of blood through a double circulatory circuit (e.g. mammals)?
heart –> body –> heart –> lungs –> heart
What are the disadvantages of a single circulatory system?
- Blood pressure drops as blood passes through tiny capillaries of gills
- Blood has low pressure as it flows towards body - won’t flow very quickly
- Rate at which O2 + nutrients delivered to respiring tissues + CO2 + urea is removed is limited
What are the advantages of a double circulatory system in mammals?
- Blood pressure mustn’t be too high in pulmonary circulation as may damage lung capillaries
- Heart can increase pressure of blood after passing through lungs, so blood is under higher pressure as it flows to body + flows more quickly
- Systemic circulation can carry blood at higher pressure than pulmonary circulation
Give an example of an animal with an open circulatory system.
Insects
How do substances get around animals with open circulatory systems?
- Movement helps to circulate blood, when stationary blood stops moving so transport stops
- Insects: muscular pumping organ similar to heart just under dorsal of body. Blood enters heart through pores (ostia) which pumps towards head by peristalsis. At front end of heart blood pours into body cavity. Can continue at rest but movement may affect circulation
- Larger insects (e.g. locusts): -Open ended tubes attached to heart. Direct blood towards active parts of body e.g. leg + wing muscles
What are the disadvantages of an open circulatory system?
- Blood pressure low + blood flow is slow
- Circulation of blood may be affected by body movements or lack of
What are the advantages of a closed circulatory system with tissue fluid to supply cells with the necessary substances?
- Higher pressure so blood flows quicker
- More rapid delivery of oxygen + nutrients
- More rapid removal of CO2 + other wastes
- Transport is independent of body movements
What is the blood in the arteries like?
-High pressure so arterial wall has to be thick
Describe the structure of arteries.
-Narrow lumen to maintain high pressure
-Thick wall to withstand high pressure. 3 layers:
> Inner layer: thing layer of elastic tissue allowing stretch + recoil to help maintain blood pressure
> Middle layer: thick layer of smooth muscle
> Outer layer: relatively thick layer of collagen + elastic tissue, providing strength to withstand high pressure + recoil to maintain pressure
Where are arterioles found?
Between arteries and capillaries - distribute blood from the artery to the capillary
Describe the structure of arterioles.
- Arteriole walls contain smooth muscle that contracts to constrict diameter of arteriole to increase resistance to decrease rate of flow of blood
- Constriction of arteriole wall can be used to divert flow of blood to regions of body demanding more oxygen
Describe the structure of capillaries.
- Very narrow lumen: diameter about same as RBC (7μm) so RBCs squeezed against walls of capillary as they pass along it, reducing diffusion path of oxygen to tissues. Also increases resistance so reduces rate of flow
- Walls consist of a single layer of flattened endothelial cells reducing diffusion distance for materials being exchanged
- Walls are leaky allowing blood plasma + dissolved substances to leave the blood
Where are venules found?
Between capillaries and veins - collect blood from capillary bed + lead into veins
Describe the structure of venules.
- Wall consists of a think layer of muscle + elastic tissue outside endothelium
- Thin outer layer of collagen
Describe the structure of veins.
- Relatively large lumen to decrease resistance to ease flow of blood
- Walls; thinner layers of collage, smooth muscle + elastic tissue than artery walls. Don’t need to stretch + recoil + are not actively constricted to reduce blood flow
- Valves: help blood flow back to heart + prevent it flowing in opposite direction
- Walls are thin so vein can be flattened by action of surrounding skeletal muscle. Contraction of surrounding skeletal muscle applies pressure to blood forcing blood to move along in a direction determined by valves
How does tissue fluid form?
- At arteriole end of capillaries blood is under high hydrostatic pressure due to heart’s contractions
- This pressure pushes blood fluid (plasma) out of capillaries through gaps between cells of capillary wall. This happens as the hydrostatic pressure is higher than the oncotic pressure
- Plasma + dissolved substances leave the blood
- RBCs, platelets + most WBCs are too large to leave so stay in capillary
- Tissue fluid surrounds cells for exchange to occur
How is tissue fluid drained?
- Some returns to capillaries: low hydrostatic pressure at venule end + oncotic pressure now high due to plasma proteins in the blood, fluid moves back into blood carrying dissolved wastes down a pressure gradient
- Rest leaves through lymphatic system
How does fluid from tissue fluid reenter the blood through the lymphatic system?
- Pores allow fluid to leave tissue fluid + enter lymph vessels
- Removes large proteins + neutrophils from tissue fluid to reenter blood
- Lymph vessels drain lymph into large vessels which eventually rejoin blood system in the chest (via subclavian vein)
What is the fluid in the lymphatic system called?
Lymph
Where are the lymphocytes present in lymph produced?
Lymph nodes
What is the role of lymph nodes?
- Swellings found at intervals along lymphatic system
- Have an important role in immune system
- Produce lymphocytes
What is hydrostatic pressure and what does it do?
- HS pressure of blood: tends to push fluid into tissues
- HS pressure of tissue fluid: tends to push fluid into capillaries
- Force a liquid exerts on the walls of its containers
What is oncotic (osmotic) pressure and what does it do?
- Oncotic pressure of blood: tends to pull water back into blood (has negative figure)
- Oncotic pressure of tissue fluid: pulls water into tissue fluid
- Oncotic pressure of solutes dissolved in solution have an influence on hydrostatic pressure
What is the muscle of the heart called?
Cardiac muscle
Which blood vessel supplies the cardiac muscle of the heart with oxygen and glucose for aerobic respiration?
Coronary artery
What happens if there is blockages in the coronary arteries?
- Restricted delivery of oxygen + glucose)
- Angina or myocardial infarction
What is attached to the valves and what do they do?
- Tendinous cords
- Prevent valves from turning inside out when ventricle walls contract
What is the role of the ventricular septum?
-Ensures the oxygenated blood left side + deoxygenated blood on right side are kept separate
Which blood vessel does deoxygenated blood leave the heart through?
pulmonary artery
Which blood vessel does deoxygenated blood enter the heart through?
vena cava
Which blood vessel does oxygenated blood enter the heat through?
pulmonary vein
Which blood vessel does oxygenated blood leave the heart through?
aorta
What is the width of the atria walls and why?
- Muscle of atria walls is very thin
- Don’t need to create much pressure (only enough to get through AV valves in ventricles)
- Function is to receive blood from veins and push into ventricles
What is the width of the right ventricular walls and why?
- Thicker than walls of atria
- Enables right ventricle to pump blood out of heart
- Pumps deoxygenated blood to lungs
- Lungs are in chest cavity beside the heart, so blood doesn’t need to travel far
- Can’t have too high a pressure as alveoli are delicate + could be damaged by high pressure
- Only needs to create enough pressure to overcome the resistance of the pulmonary circuit
What is the width of the left ventricular walls and why?
- Can be 2 or 3 times thicker than right ventricular walls
- Blood from left ventricle pumped out through aorta
- Left ventricle needs to create enough pressure to overcome the resistance of the systemic circulation
- Has to be pumped all around the body which is further than the lungs for the right ventricle
What is the structure of the cardiac muscle?
- Consists of fibres that branch to produce cross-bridges
- Help to spread stimulus around heart + ensure muscle can produce squeezing action rather than just a reduction in length
- Number of mitochondria between muscle fibrils (myofibrils) to supply energy for contraction
- Muscle cells separated by intercalated discs which facilitate synchronised contraction
- Each cell has a nucleus + is divided into contractile units: sarcomeres
- Is myogenic
The cardiac muscle of the heart is myogenic. What does this mean?
It initiates its own contractions
What is the cardiac cycle?
The sequence of events in one full heartbeat
What is the role of valves?
- Ensure blood is flowing in the correct direction
- Open + close by changes in blood pressure
Describe the movement of blood through the heart in relation to the atrio-ventricular valves (from diastole to ventricular systole).
- Pressure in ventricles rapidly drops below pressure of atria
- Blood in atria pushes AV valves open
- Blood entering heart flows straight through atria + into ventricles
- Pressure in atria + ventricles rises slowly as they fill w blood
- Valves remain open while atria contract but close when atria begin to relax
- Closure caused by swirling action in blood around valves when ventricle is full
- When ventricles start to contract pressure of blood in ventricles increases
- When pressure is above that of the atria, blood starts to move upwards
- Movement fills the valve pockets + keeps them closed
- Tendinous cords attached to the valves prevent them from turning inside out
- Prevents blood flowing back into atria
Describe the movement of blood through the heart in relation to the semilunar valves (from ventricular systole to diastole).
- Before ventricular contraction, pressure in major arteries > pressure in ventricles
- Semilunar valves are closed
- Ventricular systole raises pressure of blood in ventricles v quickly
- Once pressure in ventricles rises above pressure in major arteries, semilunar valves are pushed open
- Blood is under v high pressure so is forced out of ventricles in a powerful spurt
- Once ventricle walls finish contracting heart starts to relax (diastole)
- Elastic tissue in walls of ventricles recoils
- Stretched muscle out again + returns ventricle to its original size
- Causes pressure in ventricles to drop v quickly
- As it drops below pressure of major arteries, blood starts to flow back towards the ventricles
- Semilunar valves pushed closed by blood collecting in pockets of valves
- Preventing blood from returning to ventricles
- Pressure wave created when left semilunar valve closes is the pulse that we can feel at wrist/neck
What is it the pulse that can be felt at the wrist/neck?
Pressure wave created from left semilunar valve closing
Describe the pressure changes of the blood as it travels around the blood vessels and how does the structure of arteries help with that.
- Artery walls close to heart have lots of elastic tissue. When blood leaves heart these walls stretch
- As blood moves on + out of aorta pressure in aorta starts to drop
- Elastic recoil of wall helps maintain blood pressure in aorta
- Further blood flows along arteries, more the pressure drops + fluctuations become less obvious
- Important to maintain pressure gradient between arteries + arterioles as this keeps blood flowing towards tissues
- Fluctuations in pressure caused by pumping of heart
- Decreasing pressure from increased cross sectional area of arteries
- Low pressure in arteries
What is fibrillation?
When contractions of chambers aren’t synchronised
What initiates the heartbeat?
SAN - sino-atrial node. A small patch of tissue that generates electrical activity - a wave of electrical excitation, 55-80 times a minute in humans
Known as the pacemaker