Compare and Contrast Process

in Plants and Animals: Regulation of Body

Fluids

REGULATION OF BODY FLUIDS

GROUP 1
Key terms related to the regulation of body fluids:

 Internal environment – the fluid environment that bathes the cells

(extracellular fluid) composed of the interstitial fluid and blood.
 Osmolarity – solute concentration expressed in milliosmoles per liter of
solution (mOsm/L).
 Osmosis – the movement of water from a region of higher osmolarity to a
region of lower osmolarity across a selectively permeable membrane
 Osmoregulation – the regulation of water and ion balance
 Excretion – the elimination of metabolic wastes including nitrogenous
wastes produced from the breakdown of proteins; this process also helps in
the regulation of water and ion balance.

How do plants and animals regulate body fluids?

Osmotic pressure forces water into the cytoplasm, while diffusion and active
transport control the flow of water and electrolytes.
Higher plants use the stomata on the underside of leaves to control water loss
Osmoregulation is the active regulation of body fluids and ion balance in an
organism.
Plants have no specific osmoregulatory organs however, they have stomata below
their leaves that regulate the amount of water loss. In contrast to humans, kidneys
play a great role in osmoregulations
Transpiration Pull

This is thought to be the major force that allows water to be transported

throughout a plant. Water is transpired by a plant via stomata, which means water
concentration in these areas will be especially low
Higher plants use the stomata on the underside of leaves to control water loss.
Plant cells rely on vacuoles to regulate cytoplasm osmolarity. Plants that live in
hydrated soil (mesophytes) easily compensate for water lost from transpiration by
absorbing more water. The leaves and stem of the plants may be protected from
excessive water loss by a waxy outer coating called the cuticle. Plants that live in
dry habitats (xerophytes) store water in vacuoles, have thick cuticles, and may
have structural modifications (i.e., needle-shaped leaves, protected stomata) to
protect against water loss. Plants that live in salty environments (halophytes) have
to regulate not only water intake/loss but also the effect on osmotic pressure by
salt. Some species store salts in their roots so the low water potential will draw
the solvent in via osmosis. Salt may be excreted onto leaves to trap water
molecules for absorption by leaf cells. Plants that live in water or damp
environments (hydrophytes) can absorb water across their entire surface
GROUP 2
Transportation in animals is the combined effort of the circulatory system, and
the excretory system.
The process of removal of waste out of the cells is called excretion.
The nitrogenous waste, excess sugar in the blood, excess salts, undigested wastes,
and carbon dioxide are the substances to be excreted from the body.
The lower organisms like amoeba, hydra, paramecium excrete the nitrogenous
waste by the process of diffusion through the cell membrane, as they lack special
excretory organs.
The human excretory system constitutes kidneys, ureter, urinary bladder, urethra.
Kidneys are the main excretory organ which regulates the balance of water and
minerals in the body. They absorb minerals in the blood and eliminate the
nitrogenous waste from the blood in the form of urine.
 

Types of animals based on the osmolarity of their body fluids in relation to the
environment:

Osmoconformers – allow the osmolarity of their body fluids to match that of the
environment;
A. These include most marine invertebrates with body fluids that are generally
hyperosmotic to their surroundings
B. Because their bodies are isosmotic to seawater, they consume little or no
energy in maintaining water balance

Osmoregulators – keep the osmolarity of body fluids different from that of the
environment;
A. These include most marine vertebrates, birds, mammals
B. Either they discharge water in hypotonic environment or they take in water in a
hypertonic environment
Three types of nitrogenous wastes excreted by animals:

Ammonia – the primary nitrogenous waste for aquatic invertebrates, teleosts,

and larval amphibians
A. It is readily soluble in water but is also highly toxic
B. It can be excreted from the body only in dilute solutions.

Urea – produced by mammals, most amphibians, some reptiles, some marine

fishes, and some terrestrial invertebrates A. It is formed by combining ammonia
with bicarbonate ion (HCO3 ) and converting the ̄ product into urea
B. Although its formation requires more energy compared to ammonia, it is about
100,000x less toxic than ammonia
C. Its excretion requires only about 10% as much water compared to ammonia

Uric acid – excreted by birds, insects, and terrestrial reptiles

A. It is relatively nontoxic but more energetically expensive to produce than urea
B. It is largely insoluble in water and it is excreted as a semisolid paste or
precipitate with very little water loss

Characterize the mammalian urinary or excretory system:

The mammalian urinary system consists of two kidneys, each with a ureter, a tube
leading to a urinary bladder (for storage), with an open channel called urethra
leading to the body surface.

The kidneys serve as specialized organs for osmoregulation and excretion; they
are composed of the following:
A. Renal capsule – the outer coat of connective tissue;
B. Cortex – the zone near the capsule consisting of blood vessels and nephrons;
C. Medulla – inner zone also consisting of blood vessels and nephrons;
D. Nephrons – the functional units of the kidney where urine is formed; and
E. Renal pelvis – central cavity in the kidney where urine coming from the
nephrons is channeled before going to the ureter
  Each kidney contains about 1.3 M nephrons, approximately 80 km long if
connected end to end.
 About 1,600 liters of blood pass through the kidneys each day (300x the
blood volume); approximately 180 liters become filtrate but only about 1.5
liters of urine get excreted.
 More than 99% of the water and almost all sugar, vitamins and other
organic nutrients are reabsorbed across the tubule epithelium

Animals utilize an excretory system to control the amount of water that is lost to
the environment and maintain osmotic pressure. Protein metabolism also
generates waste molecules which could disrupt osmotic pressure. The organs that
are responsible for osmoregulation depend on the species. Marine invertebrates
with body fluids that are generally hyperosmotic to their surroundings are called
osmoconformers because they allow the osmolarity of their body fluids to match
that of the environment. Marine vertebrates, birds and mammals, on the other
hand are osmoregulators, because they keep the osmolarity of body fluids
different from their environment

GROUP 3
Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of bodily fluids to
maintain the homeostasis of the body's water content; that is it keeps the body's
fluids from becoming too dilute or too concentrated. Osmotic pressure is a
measure of the tendency of water to move into one solution from another by
osmosis. The higher the osmotic pressure of a solution the more water wants to
go into the solution. Pressure must be exerted on the hypertonic side of a
selectively permeable membrane to prevent diffusion of water by osmosis from
the side containing pure water.
Animals in all environments (aquatic and terrestrial) must maintain the right
concentration of solutes and amount of water in their body fluids; this involves
excretion: getting rid of metabolic wastes and other substances such
as hormones which would be toxic if allowed to accumulate in the blood via
organs such as the skin and the kidneys; keeping the water and dissolved solutes
in balance is referred to as osmoregulation.
Homeostasis refers to the relatively stable state inside the body of an animal.
Animal organs and organ systems constantly adjust to internal and external
changes in order to maintain this steady state. Examples of internal conditions
maintained homeostatically are the level of blood glucose, body temperature,
blood calcium level. These conditions remain stable because of physiologic
processes that result in negative feedback relationships. If the blood glucose or
calcium rises, this sends a signal to organs responsible for lowering blood glucose
or calcium. The signals that restore the normal levels are examples of negative
feedback. When homeostatic mechanisms fail, the results can be unfavorable for
the animal. Homeostatic mechanisms keep the body in dynamic equilibrium by
constantly adjusting to the changes that the body’s systems encounter. Even an
animal that is apparently inactive is maintaining this homeostatic equilibrium. Two
examples of factors that are regulated homeostatically are temperature and water
content. The processes that maintain homeostasis of these two factors are called
thermoregulation and osmoregulation
The goal of homeostasis is the maintenance of equilibrium around a specific value
of some aspect of the body or its cells called a set point. While there are normal
fluctuations from the set point, the body’s systems will usually attempt to go back
to this point. A change in the internal or external environment is called a stimulus
and is detected by a receptor; the response of the system is to adjust the activities
of the system so the value moves back toward the set point. For instance, if the
body becomes too warm, adjustments are made to cool the animal. If glucose
levels in the blood rise after a meal, adjustments are made to lower them and to
get the nutrient into tissues that need it or to store it for later use.
When a change occurs in an animal’s environment, an adjustment must be made
so that the internal environment of the body and cells remains stable. The
receptor that senses the change in the environment is part of a feedback
mechanism. The stimulus—temperature, glucose, or calcium levels—is detected
by the receptor. The receptor sends information to a control center, often the
brain, which relays appropriate signals to an effector organ that is able to cause an
appropriate change, either up or down, depending on the information the sensor
was sending.
GROUP 4
Human Excretory System
The human excretory system functions to remove waste from the body through
the skin as sweat, the lungs in the form of exhaled carbon dioxide, and through
the urinary system in the form of urine. All three of these systems participate in
osmoregulation and waste removal
The human excretory system is made up of the kidneys, ureter, urinary bladder,
and urethra.
The kidneys filter blood and form urine, which is stored in the bladder until it is
eliminated through the urethra
The kidneys are a pair of bean-shaped structures that are located just below the
liver in the body cavity.
All the blood in the human body is filtered about 60 times a day by the kidneys.
The nephrons remove wastes, concentrate them, and form urine that is collected
in the bladder
Internally, the kidney has three regions—an outer cortex, a medulla in the
middle, and the renal pelvis, which is the expanded end of the ureter.
Each of the kidneys contains more than a million tiny units called nephrons that
filter blood containing the metabolic wastes from cells.
The renal cortex contains the nephrons—the functional unit of the kidney. The
renal pelvis collects the urine and leads to the ureter on the outside of the kidney.
The ureters are urine-bearing tubes that exit the kidney and empty into the
urinary bladder
All the blood in the human body is filtered about 60 times a day by the kidneys.
The nephrons remove wastes, concentrate them, and form urine that is collected
in the bladder
1.Blood enters each kidney from the aorta, the main artery supplying the body
below the heart, through a renal artery
2.It is distributed in smaller vessels until it reaches each nephron in capillaries
3.Within the nephron the blood comes in intimate contact with the waste-
collecting tubules in a structure called the glomerulus
4.Water and many solutes present in the blood, including ions of sodium, calcium,
magnesium, and others; as well as wastes and valuable substances such as amino
acids, glucose and vitamins, leave the blood and enter the tubule system of the
nephron
5.As materials pass through the tubule much of the water, required ions, and
useful compounds are reabsorbed back into the capillaries that surround the
tubules leaving the wastes behind.
Some of this reabsorption requires active transport and consumes ATP
6. Some wastes, including ions and some drugs remaining in the blood, diffuse out
of the capillaries into the interstitial fluid and are taken up by the tubule cells.
7. These wastes are then actively secreted into the tubules. The blood then
collects in larger and larger vessels and leaves the kidney in the renal vein.
The renal vein joins the inferior vena cava, the main vein that returns blood to the
heart from the lower body. The amounts of water and ions reabsorbed into the
circulatory system are carefully regulated and this is an important way the body
regulates its water content and ion levels
The waste is collected in larger tubules and then leaves the kidney in the ureter,
which leads to the bladder where urine, the combination of waste materials and
water, is stored
The bladder contains sensory nerves, stretch receptors that signal when it needs
to be emptied. These signals create the urge to urinate, which can be voluntarily
suppressed up to a limit. The conscious decision to urinate sets in play signals that
open the sphincters, rings of smooth muscle that close off the opening, to the
urethra that allows urine to flow out of the bladder and the body
GROUP 5
Dialysis is a medical process of removing wastes and excess water from the blood
by diffusion and ultrafiltration. When kidney function fails, dialysis must be done
to artificially rid the body of wastes and fluids. This is a vital process to keep
patients alive. In some cases, the patients undergo artificial dialysis until they are
eligible for a kidney transplant. In others who are not candidates for kidney
transplants, dialysis is a lifelong necessity.
Dialysis technicians typically work in hospitals and clinics. While some roles in this
field include equipment development and maintenance, most dialysis technicians
work in direct patient care. Their on-the-job duties, which typically occur under
the direct supervision of a registered nurse, focus on providing dialysis
treatments. This can include reviewing patient history and current condition,
assessing and responding to patient needs before and during treatment, and
monitoring the dialysis process. Treatment may include taking and reporting a
patient’s vital signs, preparing solutions and equipment to ensure accurate and
sterile procedures.