Chapter 8 notes

8.1 Transport systems in animals

Because animals do not make their own food and they are active, they require energy. Energy that is
acquired from glucose and other substances…. Broken down in RESPIRATION.

Most efficient form of respiration is:

Aerobic respiration: requires a supply of oxygen

The steady supply of oxygen to respiring tissues is an important function of the transport system

Waste products such as carbon dioxide can also be removed with this respiration.

Small animals can get enough oxygen to their cells through diffusion, if activity levels are not too high.
Oxygen diffuses in – carbon dioxide out in different direction.

NO CELL IS VERY FAR FROM THE SURFACE… ALWAYS GETS JUST ENOUGH OXYGEN.

Larger animals cannot gain oxygen through diffusion. Transport systems are required to distribute
oxygen quickly to all body cells, and to get rid of waste products.

Mammals have greater oxygen requirements because they create their own heat.

8.2 Mammalian circulatory system

The circulatory system is made up of

 A pump
 A heart
 Blood vessels (interconnecting tubes)

Blood always remain within the blood vessels, making them a closed blood system.

Blood travels twice through the heart on one complete beat : double circulation

Systemic circulation is the blood returning to the right side of the heart (vena cava) after being pumped
out of the left ventricle to the rest of the body (no lungs)

Pulmonary circulation is blood pumped out of the right ventricle into pulmonary arteries- carrying it to
lungs, then returned to the left side of the heart.

Systemic circulation has higher pressure than pulmonary.

Q1- Figure 8.4 shows fish circulatory system.

a- How this system differs from the circulatory system of a mammal

This system does not have blood vessels, nor a heart. They also do not have lungs that require
oxygen, only gills.
b- Why mammalian transport system may be able to deliver more oxygen more quickly to the
tissues than the fish’s transport system
 The mammalian transport system has blood vessels, aka interconnecting tubes spread out all
over the body which direct blood into all directions and the heart dually pumps inwards and
outwards (oxygen in carbon out) more efficiently.
C – how differences can relate to the different requirements of a fish and a mammal
The fish’s transport system suggests that it doesn’t necessarily need as much oxygen, or that it
isn’t as active- also suggests that fish don’t make their own heat, because if they don’t need to
make heat they need much less oxygen.

8.3 blood vessels

3 types of vessels….
 Arteries carry blood away from the heart
 Veins carry blood towards the heart
 Arterioles are small arteries
 Small veins are venules.
 Capillaries are tiny vessels that link arterioles and venules and ensure blood to almost every cell.

Arteries transport blood swiftly & at high pressure to the tissues.

 Strong and elastic walls
 Blood leaves heart at high pressure.
 Artery wall composure prevents tube from collapsing.

Veins & arteries have three layers within their walls.

 Inner layer, endothelium made of flat cells (squamous epithelium)

^ minimizes friction with moving blood
 Middle layer; smooth muscle. Collagen + elastic fibres
 Outer layer w/ elastic fibres and collagen fibres

Arteries have thickest walls of any blood vessels.

Aorta: largest artery.

Elastic arteries are arteries with a lot of elastic tissue in their middle layer. They carry bood from the
heart.

Muscular arteries take blood from an elastic artery and deliver it close to the final destination, and
are formed from arteries dividing into smaller vessels and the muscle proportion increases and the
elastic tissue proportion decreases.

The muscular arteries divide even more to form arterioles.

Vasoconstriction is nerve nedings from the brain causing smooth muscle in the nerve to contract &
narrow the arteriole.

 Can be used to redirect blood flow.

The muscle relaxing and arteriole widens, is vasodilation.

Smooth muscle also reacts to hormones.

Q2 – Suggest why there are no blood capillaries in the cornea of the eye. How is the cornea supplied w/
oxygen and nutrients?

The cornea likely gets it’s oxygen and nutrients through diffusion rather than through capillaries.

Q3 – Suggest a reason…

a. Why when a soldier stands motionless the blood pressure in his feet rises quickly
This is probably because the soldier is standing still at attention and has no
squeezing/contraction movement going on in the veins on his legs; which need to be stimulated
to push blood up, so the blood that is going down the feet stays at the feet for longer.
b. When you breathe in, thorax volume increases and blood moves through veins to the heart.
Because as you breathe in you are created more space and move pressure on your veins which
allows the blood pressure to increase and pump more.

Q4 – Describe and explain how blood pressure varies in different parts of the circulatory system.

Blood pressure is at it’s highest as it moves through the arteries. This is because the blood is distribution
down slowly as the blood needs to reach places that the artery cannot reach; so the blood pressure
decreases as it goes from artery to arteriole, arteriole to vein, vein to venule, venule to capillary….
Because different parts of the bodies need different amounts of oxygen & blood.

Q5 – Construct a table comparing arteries, veins, and capilarries.

CIRCULATORY SYSTEM SIMILARITY DIFFERENCE WHY

PART
ARTERY A tube that carries Takes blood away from The arteries have high
blood the heart blood pressure and
move blood on it’s
own.
VEIN A tube that carries Takes the blood to the Veins have valves that
blood heart help keep the blood to
level and not fall back
down due to the low
blood pressure.
CAPILLARY A tube that carries Takes blood to the Very low blood
blood smallest parts of the pressure with cellular
body and distributes it gaps that allow blood
all as needed to seep out.

Q6 - Discuss whether there is a relationship between the RMM of a substance and the permeability of
the capillary walls to that substance. How can you explain the relationship?
I believe that there is a relationship between RMM and permeability. This is because as the RMM
increases, the permeability decreases; this suggests that more molecular mass makes it harder for
molecules to pass through.

Q7- Most abundant plasma protein; albumin. Why is it important that capillary walls are not permeable
to albumin.

It is important that the walls are not permeable so the albumin molecules don’t enter in mass amounts
and hurt the body.

Q8 – Concentration of proteins in blood plasma is lower than usual with KWASHIORKOR disease. One
symptom of this is build-up of tissue fluid. Suggest why.

Tissue fluid is leaked plasma, so if the proteins in blood plasma are low then it won’t be functioning
thoroughly and more tissue fluid will begin to leak through the capillary endothelium.

8.5 Blood

Blood plasma is a pale yellow liquid – 95% water – various substances dissolved in it, which are
transported through the blood.

The red color of blood cells is caused by haemoglobin (globular protein)

Haemogblogin: transport oxygen from lungs to respiring tissues.

 Red blood cells shaped like biconcave disc.

 Red blood cells very small
 Haemoglobin molecule are neve far from cell surface
 ^ can quickly exchange oxygen with fluid outside the cell.
 Red blood cells are very flexible – specialized cytoskeleton
 Red blood cells have no nucleus, no mitochondria, no endoplasmic reticulum.
 Less organelles – more haemoglobin (maximizing oxygen intake)
 Red blood cells do not live very long
-Made in the bone marrow -broken down in the liver.

Q9 – Calculate how many blood cells must be made on average in your bone marrow each day.

10 to the 13th = 1 trillion x 2.5 = 2.5 trillion + 120 = 208333333333 a day.

Q10 – which functions can/cannot be carried out by a red blood cell? Explain briefly.
a. Protein synthesis
No, because the red blood cell has no nucleus or mitochondria to synthesis proteins.
b. Cell division
No cell division because red blood cells have no nucleus.
c. Lipid synthesis
Yes because red blood cells carry all types of substances in the blood.
d. Active transport
 Yes because red blood cells constantly transport different substances.
White blood cells are made from bone marrow.

 White blood cells have a nucleus (varies in white cell type)

 Larger than red blood cells (apart from lymphocytes sometimes)
 Spherical or irregular shape, not bioncave disc
Many different types of white blood cells, all different functions. All concerned with fighting disease.
The two sections of white blood cells are categorized:
Phagocyte …. Lymphocyte.
Phagocyte: destroy invading microorganisms through phagocytosis.
Monocyte: cell that can develop into a macrophage (type of phagocyte)
Lymphocyte: destroy microorganisms, not through phagocytosis.

 Secrete antibody chemicals (attack & destroy invader)

 Smaller than most phagocytes, large round nucleus, less cytoplasm
Body cells need a constant supply of oxygen in order to carry out aerobic respiration.
Q11 – Healthy adult human: 150g of haemoblogin in 1dm^3 of blood
a. Calculate how much oxygen can be carried in 1dm^3 o blood
329.55 cm of oxygen
Partial pressure – the measure of the concentration of a gas
Percentage saturation – the degree of haemoglobin combined with oxygen in the blood : calculated as a
percent out of the max amount it could combine
Dissociation curve – graph that shows the percent saturation of a pigment with oxygen, plotted against the
partial pressure of oxygen