Relationship of Body Systems Essay

Terri Nichols

6/30/19

1) A cell is a unit of life, There are many different structures that house chemical reactions
that make life possible. There are many different shapes of a cell. No one cell is the same
shape and size. Nerve cells have long thread like extensions that conduct electrical
impulses to one part of the body to another. Without the long extensions your nerves
would not work. Muscle cells are slender and rodlike. The protein fibers in muscle cells
help to keep the cell strong when it pulls the body part together. Epithelial cells are thin,
flat and tightly packed. They are in your mouth. They protect the cells underneath them.
2) One passive mechanisms is Osmosis. Osmosis is the movement of water across a
selectively permeable membrane into a compartment containing solute that can not cross
the membrane. The pressure that moves water in and out of cells is called water potential.
Pure water has a high water potential and so water is very likely to move into cells if they
have water around them. Plant cells take in water by osmosis until the cell wall pushes
back on the cell's contents with the same pressure. The energy which drives the process is
usually discussed in terms of osmotic pressure. the pressure that would have to be applied
to a pure solvent to prevent it from passing into a given solution by osmosis, often used to
express the concentration of the solution.
3) One active mechanisms is active transport. Active transport is a process that moves
particles though membranes from a region of lower concentration to a region of higher
concentration. Active Transport The movement of materials against a concentration
difference is called active transport. Active transport requires energy. Transport proteins
that act like pumps use energy to move small molecules and ions across cell membranes.
There are two main types of active transport: 1. TRANSPORT PROTEINS - the same as
facilitated diffusion, except a molecule goes from low concentration to high
concentration across a cell membrane and it needs energy to take place. Active transport
is usually associated with accumulating high concentrations of molecules that the cell
needs, such as ions, glucose and amino acids. If the process uses chemical energy, such
as from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), it is termed primary active transport.
4) For this weeks assignment I had used the knowledge in our text book along with some
online resources to be able to better understand the assignment. Without the use of the
information I had found I would not be able to complete the assignment.