Topic 14 - Homeostasis Flashcards
Why do organisms have control systems?
To keep their internal conditions near constant to function efficiently. HOMEOSTASIS
What are the physiological factors controlled in homeostasis in mammals? (6 things)
- Core body temperature
- Metabolic waster, especially carbon dioxide and urea
- Blood pH
- Blood glucose concentration
- Water potential of blood
- Concentration in blood or respiratory gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide
What does the phrase ‘internal environment’ refer to?
Refers to all the conditions in the body in which cells function
What is the immediate environment of a cell?
Tissue fluid
How do homeostatic mechanisms work?
By controlling the composition of the blood which controls the composition of tissue fluid
How do homeostatic mechanisms work?
By controlling the composition of the blood which controls the composition of tissue fluid
What are the 4 features of tissue fluid that influence cell activities?
- Temperature
- Water Potential
- Blood Glucose Concentration
- pH
How does temperature affect cell activities?
If it’s too high, the proteins and enzymes denature and if it’s too low, it results in slow metabolic reactions
How does water potential affect cell activites?
If it’s too high, water enters the cell, causing it to swell and burst.
If it’s too low, water moves out of the cell by osmosis causing metabolic reactions to slow down or stop
How does blood glucose concentration affect cell activites?
A decrease in concentration causes respiration to stop or slow
An increase in concentration causes water to move out of the cell by osmosis
How does pH affect cell activity?
The cytoplasm pH is around 6.5 to 7
If the pH is outside the range the enzymes will function less efficiently and could denature
What is the most common type of control mechanism used in living organisms to maintain homeostatic balance?
Negative Feedback Loop
What are examples of effectors?
Muscles and Glands
What do receptors do?
Detect a stimulus
What are the 2 types of receptors?
Receptors detecting internal and external stimuli
What do receptors send information to?
Send information about changes they detect in the nervous system to the central control in the brain or spinal cord
What is considered an input in the negative feedback system?
Sensory information
What does the central control instruct?
Instructs the effector to carry out an action or an output
What are actions in the negative feedback loop considered as?
Corrective actions
How does continuous monitoring of a factor in the body by receptors take place and what does this mean?
A steady stream of information is being sent to the control centre so continuous adjustments to the output can be made
So the factor always fluctuates around the set point
Why do homeostatic mechanisms involve the negative feedback?
So it minimises the difference between the actual value of the factor and set point. The set point is never exactly constant as it fluctuates.
The range depends on various factors such as age, sex, time of dat etc.
What are the 2 coordination systems?
The nervous system and the endocrine system
How does the nervous system work?
By electrical impulses that are transmitted along neurons
How does the endocrine system work?
By hormones (chemical messengers) that travel in the blood with long distance signalling
Give an example of a positive feedback loop
You breathe in air with a very high carbon dioxide content
This results in a high level of carbon dioxide in the blood
This is sensed by the CO2 receptors
So breathing rate increases
An increase breathing rate causes an increase in carbon dioxide and the simulation of the receptors continues
What do metabolic reactions produce that can’t be used?
Unwanted or toxic substances
How is metabolic waste removed?
By excretion
What does metabolic waste mostly consist of?
CO2 and urea
What is CO2 produced by?
By aerobically respiring cells
List 4 bullet points about carbon dioxide as an excretory product
- Waste CO2 transported from respiring cells to lungs, in the bloodstream
- Gas exchange takes place within the lungs
- CO2 diffuses from the blood into the alveoli
- CO2 is excreted in the air breathed out
Where and how is urea produced?
In the liver, from excess amino acids
List 3 bullet points about urea as an excretory product
- Transported from the liver to the kidneys, in a solution in the blood plasma
- Kidneys remove the urea from the blood and excrete it in dissolved water
- The solution is called urea
When does deamination take place?
When more protein is eaten than needed and the excess can’t be stored in the body.
The extra amino acids when excess protein is in the body, gives useful energy. To use the energy, what does the liver do?
The liver removes the amine groups in a process called deamination
Explain deamination
- Takes place in liver cells
- The amine group (NH2) of the amino acid is removed, together with an extra hydrogen atom
- They both combine to make ammonia (NH3)
- Keto acid is what remains
- Keto acid may enter the Krebs cycle and be respired
- Or it can be converted to glucose
- Or it can be converted to glycogen/fat for storage
How does ammonia affect aquatic animals?
Very soluble and highly toxic compound so it diffuses out from the blood and dissolves in the water around the animal
How does ammonia affect terrestrial animals?
Increases the pH in the cytoplasm and interferes with metabolic processes
How is the damage that ammonia causes prevented?
By converting ammonia to urea which is less soluble and less toxic
What is urea?
The main nitrogenous excretory product of humans
Apart from urea, what are the other nitrogenous excretory products?
Creatinine and uric acid
Where is creatine made and what is it made from?
In the liver, from amino acids
Where is creatine used?
Much of it is used in muscles, in the form of creatinine phosphate which acts as an energy store
Some can also be converted to creatinine and excreted
What is uric acid made from?
Made from the breakdown of purines from nucleotides
What does urea diffuse into from liver cells?
Into the blood plasma
Why does urea need to be excreted?
Otherwise the concentration in the blood builds up and becomes dangerous
When is urea filtered out and excreted?
As blood passes through the kidneys
What does each kidney receive blood from?
From the renal artery
The ureter carries urine from where to where?
The kidney to the bladder
Where does the urethra carry urine to?
Outside the body
Sketch and label a diagram of the excretory system
See 14H 14.2 Notes
What is the kidney made of?
It’s made of thousands of tubules called nephrons and many blood vessels
What surrounds the glomerulus?
The Bowman’s capsule
What is the gomerulus?
A network of capillaries
What structures of nephrons are in the cortex of a kidney?
Glomerulus and capsules
Sketch and label a diagram of a kidney
Check 14H 14.2 Notes
What structures are closely associated with nephrons?
Blood vessels
Each glomerulus is supplied with blood that flows from what?
A brach of the renal artery through an afferent arteriole
At the end of the glomerulus the capillaries rejoin to form what?
An efferent arteriole
Blood flows through the efferent arteriole into what?
A network of capillaries running closely alongside the rest of the nephron and the CD
Blood from the network of capillaries through the nephron flows into venules that empty into what?
A branch of the renal vein
Sketch and label a cross section of the nephron
Check 14H 14.2 Notes
In how many stages does the kidney make urine?
2
What are the names of the 2 stages in which the kidney makes urine?
- Ultrafiltration
2. Selective reabsorption
What is ultrafiltration?
Filtering small molecules including urea out of the blood and into the Bowman’s capsule to form filtrate
The filtrate flows along the nephron to the CD
What is selective reabsorption?
A process that takes back any useful molecules from filtrate as it flows along the nephron
Sketch and label a diagram of the process of ultrafiltration
Check 14H 14.2 Notes
Describe the process of ultrafiltration
- Blood in the glomerular capillaries are separated from the lumen of the Bowman’s capsule by 2 cell layers and a basement membrane
FIRST CELL LAYER: Endothelium of capillary
Each endothelial cell is perforated by many tiny membrane-lined circular holes around 60 to 80nm in diameter
The basement membrane is made of collagen and glycoproteins
SECOND CELL LAYER: Made of epithelial cells that make up the inner lining of the Bowman’s capsule
Cells can have many tiny finger-like projections with gaps between them called podocytes that are wrapped around the capillary
What is the glomerular filtration rate?
The rate at which a fluid filters from blood in the glomerular capillaries into the Bowman’s capsule
What is the average glomerular filtration rate in humans?
125cm^3 per minute
What are the substances int he glomerular filtrate? (8 things)
Water Plasma Proteins Amino Acids Glucose Urea Uric Acid Creatinine Inorganic Ions (Mainly Sodium, Potassium and Chlorine)
What factors can influence glomerular filtration rate? (3 things)
- Water potential gradient between the plasma in the glomerular capillaries and the filtrate in the Bowman’s capsule
- Concentration of solutes in the blood plasma in the capillaries
- Blood pressure
How can the water potential between the plasma in the glomerular capillaries and filtrate in the Bowman’s capsule increase or decrease?
Water potential decreases in the presence of solutes
Water potential increases due to high pressures
Inside the capillaries in the glomerulus, why is the blood pressure relatively high?
Because the diameter of the afferent arteriole is greater than the efferent arteriole
This causes pressure inside the glomerulus
It raises the water potential of blood plasma above the contents of the Bowman’s capsule
Inside the capillaries in the glomerulus, why is the blood pressure relatively high?
Because the diameter of the afferent arteriole is greater than the efferent arteriole
This causes pressure inside the glomerulus
It raises the water potential of blood plasma above the contents of the Bowman’s capsule