The Eleven Systems of the Human Body Flashcards
Integumentary System
Components: Skin, and associated structures (hair, fingernails, toenails, sweat glands, and oil glands.)
Functions: Protects body; helps regulate body temperature; eliminates some wastes; helps make vitamin D; detects sensations such as touch, pain, warmth, and cold; stores fat and provides insulation.
Skeletal System
Components: Bones and joints of the body and their associated cartilages.
Functions: Supports and protects the body; provides surface area for muscle attachments; aids body movements; houses cells that produce blood cells; stores minerals and lipids(fats).
Endocrine System
Components: Hormone-producing glands (pineal gland, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, thymus, thyroid gland, parathyroid glands, adrenal glands, pancreas, ovaries, and testes) and hormone-producing cells in several other organs.
Functions: Regulates body activities by releasing hormones (chemical messengers transported in blood from endocrine gland or tissue or target organ).
Cardiovascular System
Components: Blood, heart, and blood vessels.
Functions: Heart pumps blood through blood vessels, blood carries oxygen and nutrients to cells and carbon dioxide and wastes away from cells and helps regulate acid-base balance, temperature, and water content of body fluids; blood components help defend against disease and repair damaged blood vessels.
Lymphatic System and Immunity
Components: Lymphatic fluid and vessels; spleen, thymus, lymph nodes, and tonsils; cells that carry out immune responses (B cells, T cells, and others).
Functions: Returns proteins and fluid to blood; carries lipids from gastrointestinal tract to blood; contains sites of maturation and proliferation of B cells and T cells that protect against disease-causing microbes.
RespiratorySystem
Components: Lungs and air passageways such as the pharynx(throat), larynx(voice box), trachea(windpipe), and bronchial tubes leading into and out of lungs.
Functions: Transfers oxygen from inhaled air to blood and carbon dioxide from blood to exhaled air; helps regulate acid-base balance of body fluids; air flowing out of lungs through vocal cords produce sounds.
Digestive System
Components: Organs of gastrointestinal tract, a long tube that includes the mouth, pharynx(throat), esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, and anus; also includes accessory organs that assist in digestive processes, such as salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.
Functions: Achieves physical and chemical breakdown of food; absorbs nutrients; eliminates solid wastes.
Urinary System
Components: Kidneys, ureters, urinary bladder, and urethra.
Functions: Produces, stores, and eliminates urine; eliminates wastes and regulates volume and chemical composition of blood; helps maintain the acid-base balance of body fluids; maintains body’s mineral balance; helps regulate production of red blood cells.
Reproductive System
Components: Gonads(testes and ovaries) and associated organs(uterine tubes or Fallopian tubes, uterus, vagina, and mammary glands in females & epididymus, ductus or vas deferent, seminal vesicles, prostate, and penis in males).
Functions: Gonads produce gametes (sperm or oocytes) that unite to form a new organism; gonads also release hormones that regulate reproduction and other body processes; associated organs transport and store gametes; mammary glands produce milk.
Muscular System
Components: Specifically, skeletal tissue–muscle usually attached to bones (other muscle tissues include smooth and cardiac).
Functions: Participates in body movements, such as walking; maintaining posture; produces heat.
Nervous System
Components: Brain, spinal cord, nerves, and special sense organs, such as eyes and ears.
Functions: Generates action potentials(nerve impulses) to regulate body activities; detects changes in body’s internal and external environments, interprets changes, and responds by causing muscular contractions or glandular secretions.
