Systems of the Body Flashcards
Superior
(Cranial) Toward the head of the body or a body structure; above another part of the body.
Inferior
(Caudal) Toward the lower end of the body or a body structure; below another part of the body.
Ventral
(Anterior) Toward the front of the body; in front of another structure or body part.
Dorsal
(Posterior) Toward the back of the body; behind another structure or body part.
Medial
Toward the middle of the body; on the inner side of another structure or body part.
Lateral
Toward one side of the body; on the outer side of another structure or body part.
Intermediate
Between medial and lateral
Proximal
Closer to the trunk of the body
Distal
Farther from the trunk of the body
Superficial
Close to the surface of the skin
Deep
Far from the surface of the skin
Prone
Lying on the stomach
Supine
Lying on the back
What are the main functions of the respiratory system? How do the lungs carry this out?
Transport oxygen from the atmosphere into the body's cells and move carbon dioxide in the other direction. Oxygen in the lungs moves into the blood and carbon dioxide in the blood moves into the lungs through the alveoli. The lungs move the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the blood carries the oxygen to the body. The alveoli (air sacs) communicate with the external environment via a system of airways, or hollow tubes, of which the largest is the trachea, which branches in the middle of the chest into the two main bronchi. These enter the lungs where they branch into progressively narrower secondary and tertiary bronchi that branch into numerous smaller tubes, the bronchioles. It is the bronchioles that generally open into the microscopic alveoli.
Alveoli
Tiny air sacs in the lungs where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged.
Trachea
The windpipe, which connects the larynx to the lungs.
Bronchi
The main passageways directly attached to the lungs.
What are the main functions of the Cardiovascular/Circulatory System?
Transports nutrients, wastes, chemical messengers, and immune molecules.
What is the function of the closed circulatory system?
Transports blood away from the heart, transports blood to the heart, and connects arteries to veins in tissues.
What is the function of the open lymphatic system?
Circulates and filters interstitial fluid between cells and drains into the circulatory system.
What are the two contractions cycles of the heart?
Systole - the contraction of the heart muscles
Diastole - the relaxation of the heart muscles
What does blood plasma contain?
nutrients, hormones, antibodies, and other immune proteins.
What does red blood cells contain and what is their function?
Contains hemoglobin; Red blood cells transport oxygen remove carbon dioxide from your body, transporting it to the lungs for you to exhale.
Hemoglobin
The protein inside red blood cells that carries oxygen.
Where are red blood cells made?
Inside your bones, in the bone marrow
About how much of the blood volume is made up of red blood cells?
40%
What are the main components of blood?
Red blood cells (erythrocytes) - 40-50%
White blood cells (leukocytes) - 1%
Platelets (thrombocytes)
Plasma - 55%
White blood cells are divided into what two groups?
Granular leukocytes - basophils, eosinophils, and neutrophils,
Nongranular leukocytes - lymphocytes and monocytes. (About 63 per cent of all leukocytes are neutrophils; 2.5 per cent are eosinophils; and the remaining types constitute less than 1 per cent each.)
What is the main function of the gastrointestinal/digestive system?
Breaks down food for absorption and distribution.
What is the digestive system made up of?
The digestive system is made up of the gastrointestinal tract—also called the GI tract or digestive tract—and the liver, pancreas, and gallbladder.
What is the GI tract and what does it include?
The GI tract is a series of hollow organs joined in a long, twisting tube from the mouth to the anus. The hollow organs that make up the GI tract are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and anus.
What are the three parts of the small intestine?
The first part is called the duodenum. The jejunum is in the middle and the ileum is at the end.
What does the duodenum do?
It uses alkaline bile from the gall bladder to help neutralize acid chime.
What is included in the large intestine?
The large intestine includes the appendix, cecum, colon, and rectum. The appendix is a finger-shaped pouch attached to the cecum. The cecum is the first part of the large intestine. The colon is next. The rectum is the end of the large intestine.
What do proteins, fats, and carbohydrates break down into?
Proteins break into amino acids
Fats break into fatty acids and glycerol
Carbohydrates break into simple sugars
What regulates many aspects of nutrition, such as hunger and the sensation of satiety?
hormones
What role does hormones play in the digestive system?
- Induce secretions
- Speed up the movement of food through the small intestine
- Induce cellular uptake of glucose
- Simulate the breakdown of stored glycogen
- Modulate digestive action.
What enzymes and hormones are found in the mouth?
Enzymes: salivary amylase, salivary lipase
Major Hormones: none
What enzymes and hormones are found in the stomach?
Enzymes: gastric lipase, pepsin(ogen), HCI
Major Hormones: gastrin ghrelin
What enzymes and hormones are found in the liver?
Enzymes: bile
Major Hormones: none
What enzymes and hormones are found in the pancreas?
Enzymes: pancreatic juice
Major Hormones: secretin, somatostatin, insulin, glucagon
What enzymes and hormones are found in the small intestine?
Enzymes: brush border enzymes
Major Hormones: cholecystokinin, somatostatin, secretin, motilin
What is peristalsis?
The movement of organ walls in the gastrointestinal tract. Peristalsis moves food and liquid through the gastrointestinal tract and mixes the contents within each organ.
What are the main functions of the neuromuscular system?
Nerves and muscles affect eery part of the body; controls involuntary and voluntary movement.
How does the neuromuscular system work?
Nerves have cells called neurons. Neurons carry messages from the brain via the spinal cord. The neurons that carry these messages to the muscles are called motor neurons.
Each motor neuron ending sits very close to a muscle fibre. Where they sit together is called a neuromuscular junction. The motor neurons can release a chemical, which is picked up by the muscle fibre. This tells the muscle fibre to contract, which makes the muscles move.
What are nerves?
Bundles of axons (nerve fibers) that transmit signals (or electrical impulses) from the central nervous system to the peripheral organs.
What does the autonomic nervous system do?
Controls involuntary movement, such as heart rhythm, digestion, and breathing. (cardiac and smooth muscle)
What are muscles?
Soft tissues, or myofibrils, made up of sarcomere units, each containing long strands of proteins. They respond to nerve impulses to produce force and motion.
What do sarcomere units consist of?
Long strands of proteins call Actin (thin filaments) and Myosin (thick filaments).
What makes up the neuromuscular system?
nerves and muscles
What do the electrical impulses generated at the nerve cell end do?
Travels along the Axon, and then is transmitted to the next cell using chemical neurotransmitters secreted into the synapse from the Axon terminals
What send messages to the Central Nervous System (CNS)?
Sensory (afferent) nerves
What send messages out to the muscles?
Motor (efferent) nerves
What two (2) motions are responsible for ALL muscle movement?
Contraction or relaxation of the muscle
What is used to power muscle contraction?
ATP
What are the main functions of the reproductive system?
(Involves physical structures, hormones, and secretions and works with the endocrine system)
The female reproductive system has two functions: The first is to produce egg cells, and the second is to protect and nourish the offspring until birth. The male reproductive system has one function, and it is to produce and deposit sperm.
What are the major components of the male reproductive system?
Penis, vas deferens, urethra, prostate, seminal vesicles, testis and scrotum.
What is the purpose of the scrotum?
holds the testes away from the body to lower their temperature for sperm production.
Vas deferens
the duct that conveys sperm from the testicle to the urethra.
What are the major components of the female reproductive system?
Ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix, and vagina
Where is estrogen made and what does it do?
made in the ovaries and causes the egg to mature and the uterine endometrium to thicken
What are the four phases of the menstrual cycle?
Menstrual phase (From day 1 to 5) Follicular phase (From day 1 to 13) Ovulation phase (Day 14) Luteal phase (From day 15 to 28)
What happens during the menstrual phase of the menstrual cycle?
Menstrual phase (From day 1 to 5)
- The uterus sheds its inner lining of soft tissue and blood vessels which exits the body from the vagina in the form of menstrual fluid.
- Blood loss of 10 ml to 80 ml is considered normal.
- You may experience abdominal cramps. These cramps are caused by the contraction of the uterine and the abdominal muscles to expel the menstrual fluid.
What happens during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle?
Follicular phase (From day 1 to 13)
- The pituitary gland secretes a hormone that stimulates the egg cells in the ovaries to grow.
- One of these egg cells begins to mature in a sac-like-structure called follicle. It takes 13 days for the egg cell to reach maturity.
- While the egg cell matures, its follicle secretes a hormone that stimulates the uterus to develop a lining of blood vessels and soft tissue called endometrium.
What happens during the ovulation phase of the menstrual cycle?
Ovulation phase (Day 14) - The pituitary gland secretes a hormone that causes the ovary to release the matured egg cell. The released egg cell is swept into the fallopian tube by the cilia of the fimbriae. Fimbriae are finger like projections located at the end of the fallopian tube close to the ovaries and cilia are slender hair like projections on each Fimbria.
What happens during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle?
Luteal phase (From day 15 to 28)
- The egg cell released during the ovulation phase stays in the fallopian tube for 24 hours.
- If a sperm cell does not impregnate the egg cell within that time, the egg cell disintegrates.
- The hormone that causes the uterus to retain its endometrium gets used up by the end of the menstrual cycle. This causes the menstrual phase of the next cycle to begin.
What are the main functions of the integumentary system?
Organs and glands protect the body and regulate temperature, including skin, hair, and nails.
(Its main function is to act as a barrier to protect the body from the outside world. It also functions to retain body fluids, protect against disease, eliminate waste products, and regulate body temperature.)
What does the integumentary system consist of?
It is an organ system consisting of the skin, hair, nails, and exocrine glands.
What are sebaceous glands and what is their function?
Sebaceous glands are exocrine glands found in the dermis of the skin that produce an oily secretion known as sebum. … Sebum is produced in the sebaceous glands and carried through ducts to the surface of the skin or to hair follicles.
What is secreted through the integumentary system?
- water, sodium salts, and nitrogenous waste (such as urea)
- The main electrolytes of sweat are sodium and chloride
What is thrermoregulation and how does it work?
a process that allows your body to maintain its core internal temperature. All thermoregulation mechanisms are designed to return your body to homeostasis.
(produces and releases sweat when the body is too warm, blood vessels constrict when the body is too cold, reducing the amount of blood brought to the skin surface.)
What does the skin produce when hit by ultraviolet light? Where is it produced?
Vitamin D
It is synthesized from 7-DHC in the skin, primarily in keratinocytes of the stratum basale and stratum spinosum layers of the epidermis.
What are the main functions of the Endocrine system?
Organs secrete hormones that regulate many patterns in the body into the circulatory system.
What are the major glands of the endocrine system and what do they do?
- Hypothalamus: connects your endocrine system with your nervous system. Its main job is to tell your pituitary gland to start or stop making hormones.
- Pituitary: the “master” gland of your endocrine system. It uses information it gets from your brain to “tell” other glands in your body what to do. It makes many different important hormones, including growth hormone; prolactin, which helps breastfeeding moms make milk; and luteinizing hormone, which manages estrogen in women and testosterone in men.
- Pineal: makes a chemical called melatonin. It helps your body get ready to go to sleep.
- Thyroid: makes thyroid hormone, which controls your metabolism
- Parathyroid: controls your levels of calcium and phosphorus.
- Thymus: makes white blood cells called T-lymphocytes that fight infection and are crucial as a child’s immune system develops. The thymus starts to shrink after puberty.
- Adrenal: makes the “fight or flight” hormone adrenaline (epinephrine), these two glands also make corticosteroids. These are hormones that affect your metabolism and sexual function
- Pancreas: part of both your digestive and endocrine systems. It makes digestive enzymes that break down food. It also makes the hormones insulin and glucagon. These help ensure you have the right amount of sugar in your bloodstream and your cells.
- Ovaries: In women, these organs make estrogen and progesterone. These hormones help develop breasts at puberty, regulate the menstrual cycle, and support a pregnancy.
- Testes: In men, the testes make testosterone. It helps them grow facial and body hair at puberty. It also tells the penis to grow larger and plays a role in making sperm.
Where do the nervous and endocrine systems integrate?
at the hypothalamus
How does the endocrine system work?
The nervous system receives electrical impulses to send signals and activate the pituitary, which releases hormones to other glands.
What is the main function of the Genitourinary (Urogenital) System?
excretory process
What are the major organs of the Genitourinary (Urogenital) System?
kidneys, ureters, urinary bladder, and urethra
What do the kidneys do?
filter blood, create urine, stabilize water balance, maintain blood pressure, and produce the active form of vitamin D.
What are ureters?
Small tubes that carry urine to the urinary bladder, where it is held until it is released through the urethra.
What are the main functions of the Immune system?
prevents the entry of pathogens through the use of barriers, such as the skin and secretions.
What are the two major parts of the immune system?
- Innate immune system - a series of nonspecific barriers, is divided into external (skin, hair, mucus, earwax) and internal (antimicrobials, inflammation, interferons, and complement) to reduce the number of pathogens that can enter the body or multiply.
- Adaptive immune system - divided into reaction (killing pathogens) and prevention (antibodies).
How does the immune system work?
If barriers are breached, there are cells and chemicals that attack the pathogens. If the attack fails, the adaptive immune system identifies, targets, and remembers the pathogen.
What do T-cells and B-cells do?
T-cells recognize pathogens and activate the B-cells which multiply rapidly and produce antibodies.
What are the main components of the immune system?
- Lymph nodes: Small, bean-shaped structures that produce and store cells that fight infection and disease
- Spleen: contains white blood cells that fight infection or disease.
- Bone marrow: The yellow tissue in the center of the bones produces white blood cells.
- Lymphocytes: These small white blood cells play a large role in defending the body against disease. The two types of lymphocytes are B-cells, which make antibodies that attack bacteria and toxins, and T-cells, which help destroy infected or cancerous cells. Killer T-cells are a subgroup of T-cells that kill cells that are infected with viruses and other pathogens or are otherwise damaged. Helper T-cells help determine which immune responses the body makes to a particular pathogen.
- Thymus: trigger or maintain the production of antibodies that can result in muscle weakness
- Leukocytes: These disease-fighting white blood cells identify and eliminate pathogens and are the second arm of the innate immune system.
What are the main functions of the skeletal system?
support, movement, protection, production of blood cells, storage of minerals and endocrine regulation.
What are the four bone types and examples of each?
- Long bones - humerus, ulna, radius, femur, tibia, and fibula
- Short bones - toe bones and collarbone
- Flat bones - scapula, ribs, and sternum
- Irregular - skull, knee, elbow
What bones contain marrow?
Red marrow is found mainly in the flat bones such as hip bone, breast bone, skull, ribs, vertebrae and shoulder blades, and in the cancellous (“spongy”) material at the proximal ends of the long bones femur and humerus.
What are synovial joints
pivot, ball and socket, and hinge joints that contain a lubricant and are usually capable of movement.
What are the two types of bone cells?
Osteoclast - a large multinucleate bone cell that absorbs bone tissue during growth and healing.
Osteoblast - a cell that secretes the matrix for bone formation.
