Chapter 5 _ Blood and Circulation

● A closed-circuit system that transports materials around the body

1) Unicellular organisms
- No need for specialised transport systems
- Body size is very small -> moves around easily by diffusion
- Oxygen can be obtained
- The total surface area determines how much oxygen can get
- The volume of the cell determines how much oxygen the organism needs
2) Multicellular organisms
- Need to rely on special systems - circulatory system

Types of circulatory systems

1) Single circulatory systems
- Blood is pumped from the heart to the gas exchange organ and
then directly to the rest of the body
2) Double circulatory systems
- Pumped from the heart to the gas exchange organ, back to the
heart, and then to the rest of the body

- Advantages
1) High pressure -> allows blood to be transported easily

Double circulation in human

1) Pulmonary circulation
- Circulation through the lungs and the heart
2) Systemic circulation
- Circulation through the heart and the rest of the body

Blood
- Liquid tissue consisting of blood cells which float in a liquid
- Act as a transport medium to carry various substances around the body
(can be separated by centrifuge)
- After centrifugation, blood can be divided into:
1) Plasma
2) Blood cells

Plasma
- Contain:
1) Water
2) Dissolved substance (nutrients, waste, plasma proteins, hormones,
heat etc)
Blood cells
- Made in the bone marrow
- Contain:
1) Red blood cells
2) White blood cells
3) Blood platelets

● Red blood cells

- Formed in the bone marrow
- Short lifespan
- destroy ed in the liver and the spleen
- Transport of oxygen (their red colour comes from the haemoglobin -
> responsible for carrying oxygen)
- Do not possess a nucleus -> more haemoglobin can be packed
- Shaped like biconcave discs -> provide a large surface area for the
diffusion of gases

● White blood cells

- Irregularly shaped
- Possess nucleus
- The number can be vary
- Different lifespan
- To protect the body against pathogens

● Lymphocytes
- Large nucleus
- Made in the bone marrow and then migrate to the
lymph node
- Kill pathogens by producing antibodies
● Phagocytes
- Made in the bone marrow
- Have a lobed nucleus
- Engulf pathogens by phagocytosis

● Platelets
- Tiny fragments formed from specialized cells in the bone marrow
- No nucleus
- Short lifespan
- Involved in the process of blood clotting
● Blood vessels
1) Artery -> carries blood away from the heart
2) Vein -> carries blood towards the heart
3) Capillaries -> narrow vessels connecting artery and vein
- Arteries branch into smaller vessels = arterioles
- Small vessels (venules) join into veins

● Arteries
- Contain oxygenated blood
- Possess muscular and elastic walls to withstand the high blood
pressure from the pumping action of the heart
- Lumen is small and appears to be round
- No valves
- Muscles around can contract and relax -> vessel constrict or dilate -
> control the amount of blood flowing to a particular organ

● Veins
- Contain deoxygenated blood
- Thinner walls+less muscular and elastic
- Lumen is larger+flatter
- Contain valves
- Surrounded by skeletal muscles

● Capillaries
- The finest type of blood vessels connecting the arterioles and
venules
 - Reach all parts of the body
- One cell thick
- Lumen is only big enough for one RBC to pass through at a time
- Allow materials to be exchanged between the blood and body
tissues

- adaptation s of capillaries for the exchange of materials

1) Very thin -> shorten the diffusion distance
2) The total cross-sectional area is very large -> blood flow is
slow to allow sufficient time for the exchange of substance
3) Large branching -> a larger surface area for diffusion

Common problems associated with blood vessels

1) Atherosclerosis
- Hardening of arterial walls due to the building up of fatty materials -
> high blood pressure may cause the arteries to burst
- Happen in the coronary artery = heart attack
- Happen in an artery in the brain = stroke
- Treated by angioplasty
2) Varicose veins
- Valves in veins in the legs become defective
- Blood is conducted back into the leg instead of up to the heart ->
blood accumulates -> pressure causes the veins to bulge and
becomes visible
3) Bruises
- Capillaries are damaged/broken -> a blow to the skin
- Result from blood leaking from these injured capillaries into the
tissues
The human heart
- The muscular organ inside the thorax (between the lungs)
- Protected by pericardium
- Continuous contraction and relaxation to pump blood around the body
The external structure of the heart
- Cardiac muscles receive blood with oxygen and nutrients via the coronary
artery
- Blood with waste is transported away from the cardiac muscles via the
coronary vein
- Referred to as the coronary circulation

● Coronary heart disease

- The coronary artery that supplies blood to the cardiac muscles
becomes narrower
- Build up of fatty substance on the arterial wall -> reducing the
amount of oxygenated blood flowing to the cardiac muscles

The internal structure of the heart

- Made of 4 chambers -> 2 atria and 2 ventricles
- Atrias have thinner walls than ventricles
- Both of the chambers are separated by a septum (prevent mixing or
oxygenated and deoxygenated blood)
- The right atrium receives deoxygenated blood via the superior vena cava
and inferior vena cava
- The right atrium receives blood from all parts of the body except for the
lungs
 - The blood is pumped from the right atrium into the right ventricle and is
then pumped to the lungs via the pulmonary artery

- The left atrium receives oxygenated blood from the lungs via the
pulmonary vein
- The blood is pumped from the left atrium into the left ventricles and then
pumped to the rest of the body via the aorta
- Huge pressure is needed to pump blood to all cells over the body, the wall
of the left ventricle is muscular and thick -> generate high blood pressure
during contraction to force oxygenated blood to all part of the body

Heart valves
- Ensure that blood only flows in one direction
Tricuspid Between the right atrium Atrioventricular valves
and right ventricle+made
up of 3 flaps

Biduspid Between the left atrium

and left ventricle+made
up of 2 flaps

Semilunar Between the ventricles

and pulmonary
artery+half moon shape

Cardiac cycle
- The sequence of events taking place in the heart during one heartbeat
- The pumping action of the heart is carried out by the contraction and
relaxation of the muscles in the atria and ventricles
Contraction of the heart Systole

Relaxation of the heart Diastole

● Before a new cycle begins

- Both the atria and ventricles are relaxed
- Atrioventricular valves - open
- Semilunar valves - closed
- Blood flows continuously from the major bein into the atria, filling
these chamber
- Some of the blood passes through into the ventricles

● Atrial systole
- Atria contract -> remaining blood is forced into the ventricles
- The valve between the prominent veins and the atria is closed by
high pressure
- Atrioventricular valves between the ventricles and atria are open
 - The semilunar valves between the ventricles and the major arteries
are still closed

● Ventricular systole
- The ventricles contract -> high pressure developed forces the
atrioventricular valves to close -> first sound ‘lub’
- The semilunar valves between the ventricles and the major arteries
are forced to open up by the high blood pressure in the ventricles ->
blood from the ventricles is pumped into the major arteries
- At about the same time that the ventricles enter systole, -> atria
begin to relax
- The valves between the prominent veins and the atria are open
- Blood flows into the atria from the major veins

● Diastole
The ventricles start to relax and the pressure within the ventricles becomes lower
than that in the major arteries
The semilunar pressure also becomes lower than the atrial pressure -> allowing
the atrioventricular valves to open
Blood in the atria flows into the ventricles through the opened atrioventricular
valves

Heart rate
- the heart rate increase during exercise to transport more oxygen to
muscle cells for aerobic respiration to produce more energy for muscle
contraction (also increase when a person is feeling stressed)
- The volume of blood pumped out in each heartbeat also increases
- The increase is triggered by the secretion of the hormone -> adrenaline
- When we sleep, however, our heart rate will decrease as we need less
energy

Control of heart rate

- changes in heart rate are brought about by stimulation from the cardiac
centre in the medulla (in the brain)

● during exercise
1) the increase in blood carbon dioxide concentration is detected by the
receptors in the aorta and the carotid artery
2) Nerve impulses are sent from the receptor to the medulla
3) The medulla then sends nerve impulses along the accelerator nerve to
increase the heart rate+cause the heart to beat with more force
- when the blood carbon dioxide concentration returns to normal, the
medulla sends nerve impulses along the deceleration nerve to decrease
the heart rate to normal

Body defence
Pathogens
- biological agents that can cause diseases = infection agents

Defence mechanisms
- pathogens can be stopped/killed by the body’s first line of defence

- the first line of defence failed - the immune response switch on

- In the second line of defence, pathogens are killed by the actions of
lymphocytes -> produce antibodies

Antibodies and antigens

- Antibodies - proteins that are produced by lymphocytes in response to the
presence of antigen on a pathogen (can only work on a specific type of
antigen for each type)
- Antigen - foreign substance from the environment or from within the body
that is identified as potentially harmful by the body’s immune system

● actions of antibodies
1) some antibodies stick to the antigens and break down the pathogens
2) Some antibodies stock to the pathogen by attaching to the antigens ->
making it easier for phagocytes to recognise and engulf the pathogens
3) Some antibodies bind the pathogens together -> making them unable to
invade body tissues/reproduce+phagocytes can ingest them more easily
4) Some antibodies act as antitoxins by combining with toxins secreted by
pathogens to neutralise the toxins and removing the harmful effects

Primary and secondary immune response

- Primary immune response - the first time a particular type of pathogens
enters the body

- specific antibodies are produced by the lymphocytes against the antigens

- A small amount of antibodies is produced slowly
- Some lymphocytes develop into memory cells -> they develop a memory of
the antigens and therefore can recognise them next time
- When the same type of pathogens enters the body again, the lymphocytes
already have a memory of the antigens and therefore the secondary
immune response is carried out
- A large amount of antibodies can be produced quickly
- The pathogens are killed before they have a chance to multiply
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Vaccination
- the immune response can be initiated artificially
- A controlled dose of dead/weakened pathogens or agents that carry the
same antigens of pathogens
- Injected to or swallowed by a person to stimulate primary immune
response and the development of memory cells
- On subsequent exposures to real pathogens, the secondary immune
response is produced