Theme 3 Powell Flashcards
Significance of Homeostasis
- Biochemical reactions sensitive to: Temperature, pH, [solute], [water], pressure
- Organisms must regulate many internal variables: nutrients, gasses, pH, waste products, water/solutes, volume, pressure, temperature
Homeostasis – Negative Feedback Loops
Homeostasis is maintained by regulating physiological variables with reference to a setpoint
Homeostasis – Cell Location
- Cell location– implications for how homeostasis is approached
- External cells must face the environment: sometimes dead (i.e. superficial layers of skin)
- But internalized ‘external’ cells must be alive – control access
Internal ‘external’ cells must:
- have a rapid turnover
- produce a lethal environment to microbes
- be covered by secretions to isolate them from the environment
Internal cells: homeostasis regulates the internal environment
- Reduces the amount of work cells have to do to maintain homeostasis if internal cells are not isoosmotic with the environment
- Enables them to specialize
- Regulate circulating fluids
Osmoregulation
regulation of the internal osmotic (water/salt/waste) environment
Circulation
bulk flow of fluid within the body (water, solutes, nutrients, gasses)
Gas Exchange
exchanging gasses with the environment
pH Regulation
controlling the [proton H+] of body fluids
Water potential
- the tendency of water to move, due to osmotic, hydrostatic, gravity, humidity, etc
- sum of osmotic potential, pressure potential, gravity etc.
Fick’s Law - Diffusion Rate
= D A dC/dX
D = diffusion coefficient – depends upon characteristics of solute and solvent, temperature etc.
A = surface area of the membrane, directly a function
dC/dX:
dC – concentration difference;
dX – thickness of the membrane
dC/dX is the force driving the diffusion
Osmolality
- osmoles – total number of dissolved particles of solute per kg of solvent
- osmolality – osmotic concentration of a solution, measured in osmoles
hypoosmotic
- of a solution, having a lower osmolality than the reference solution
- pure water is hypoosmotic to the red blood cell placed in it, which bloats
hyperosmotic
- of a solution, having a higher osmolaity than the reference solution
- a strong saline solution is hyperosmotic to the red blood cell placed within it, which shrivels
isoosmotic
- of a solution, having the same osmolality as the reference solution
- a bath of physiological saline is isoosmotic to the red blood cell placed within it, which stays the same
Osmosis
The tendency of water to cross a selectively permeable membrane towards the side of greater solute concentration when the membrane is impermeable to the solute
Osmotic potential (solute potential in plants) – force exerted on water generated by differences in solute concentration across a semi-permeable membrane
- Pure water has an osmotic potential of zero – the highest osmotic potential possible
- Lower osmotic potential is a negative number (the more solute, the more negative the osmotic potential)
- Water moves from less negative to more negative volumes
Pressure potential
– hydrostatic (=mechanical) pressure affects how water crosses a membrane from a volume of high osmotic potential to a volume of low osmotic potential
- Low osmotic potential requires high pressure to stop water from moving in
Osmosis and the living cell
- Significance to animals: cells will shrink or swell if not in an isoosmotic environment (without work on the cell’s part)
- Significance to plants: Cells will develop turgor pressure (hydrostatic) as water enters, which limits further influx of water
Bulk Flow
- Bulk flow of transport fluids requires application of hydrostatic pressure
- Affects exchange of water between the bulk transport system and the extracellular fluid in closed circulatory systems
Bulk Flow - Animal Example
- Pressure potential in the upstream side of the capillary bed exceeds the osmotic potential of extracellular fluid – water leaves capillaries
- Osmotic potential in the downstream side of the capillary bed exceeds hydrostatic pressure of extracellular fluid – water re-enters capillaries