THE CIRCULATORY

SYSTEM
Ms. Campbell
 Function of the circulatory
system
•The Circulatory System is responsible for transporting materials
throughout the entire body.

•It transports nutrients, water, and oxygen to your billions of body cells
and carries away wastes such as carbon dioxide that body cells produce.

•They also help to protect the body and regulate body temperature.

•It is an amazing highway that travels through your entire body connecting
all your body cells.
 The purpose of a circulatory system
Very small organisms can obtain their supplies of oxygen and nutrients by diffusion from the outside.

This is because they have a larger surface area in relation to their small volume.

Large animals like humans have a small surface area to volume ratio relation to their body surface. It
would be impossible for sufficient oxygen to diffuse quickly enough to supply all the body organs.
 The absorption and transport of substances in humans is
affected by two factors:

1. Their surface area to volume ratio

2. The limitations of simple diffusion

Components of the cardiovascular
system
Blood vessels:
Arteries
Veins
Capillaries
Blood
Red blood cells
White blood cells
Plasma
Heart
 Materials transported around the body
Useful substances: Waste substances:
Oxygen Carbon dioxide
Water
Digested food (mainly glucose and amino acid Nitrogenous waste e.g. urea
Vitamins
Minerals
Hormones
Antibodies
Plasma proteins
Heat
The blood
• A fluid containing dissolved substances and cells.
• 55% plasma
• 45% cellular
•Blood is composed of plasma and blood cells
• Types of Cells are:

•  Red Blood Cells

•  White Blood Cells
•  Platelets
Draw diagram on
page 131, fig 8.8
Red blood cells
• Called erythrocytes
• Most numerous cells. Large numbers provide a large surface area
• Made in bone marrow
• Have no nuclei, thus live for about 120 days (3-4 months)
• Function: transport oxygen
• Contain haemoglobin that combines with oxygen to form oxyhaemoglobin
• Biconcave shape increases surface area and assist passage through narrow capillaries

Draw RBC on
page 128
White blood cells

• Called Leucocytes
• Function: protect the body from foreign microbes and toxins or defend the body against infections .
• Made in the bone marrow, spleen and lymph nodes
• Phagocytes can pass through the capillary walls into tissues and they can engulf microorganisms via
phagocytosis. Many are irregular in shape
• Lymphocytes produce antibodies that destroy pathogens
• Although all leukocytes can be found in the bloodstream, some permanently leave the bloodstream to
enter tissues where they encounter microbes or toxins, while other kinds of leukocytes readily move in
and out of the bloodstream.
• Phagocytosis is a process wherein a cell binds to the item it wants to engulf on the cell surface and draws
the item inward while engulfing around it.

• Draw the 2 types of WBCs on page 128

• Identify 3 differences between their
structure
Platelets
• Called thrombocytes
• Made in red bone marrow
• Platelets lack a nucleus
• They are cell fragments
• Platelets adhere to damaged blood vessel walls and release enzymes that activate hemostasis, the
stoppage of bleeding
Plasma
• Plasma is the straw‐colored, liquid portion of the blood.
• It is 90% water and 10% solutes
• Function: transporting substances
• It transports:
Water (90 percent).
Proteins (8 percent). Albumin, antibodies, fibrinogen and prothrombin (clotting proteins),
and hormones.
Waste products (urea, uric acid, creatinine, bilirubin, and others).
Nutrients (absorbed from the digestive tract).
Electrolytes (various ions such as sodium, calcium, chloride, and bicarbonate).
Respiratory gases (O 2 and CO 2).

Serum is the liquid material remaining after blood‐clotting proteins have been removed from plasma as
a result of clotting
Blood clotting
• Coagulation (blood clotting) is a complicated series of physical reactions that transform liquid blood into
a gel that provides a secure patch to the injured blood vessel
• It prevent further bleeding and the entry of microorganisms
• Mechanism involves a series of stages:
 Vitamin K must be
= A cut in the
skin present to make
prothrombin in liver

Fibrin forms the fibres. Platelets and damaged

Fibres traps RBCs and capillaries release a protein
platelets forming the clot called thromboplastin

Thrombin acts on soluble Thromboplastin converts

fibrinogen and converts it to prothrombin to thrombin in the
insoluble fibrin presence of calcium salts
(Ca2+)
Blood vessels
Blood is carried through the body via blood
vessels. An artery is a blood vessel that carries
blood away from the heart, where it branches
into ever-smaller vessels. Eventually, the smallest
arteries, vessels called arterioles, further branch
into tiny capillaries, where nutrients and wastes
are exchanged, and then combine with other
vessels that exit capillaries to form venules, small
blood vessels that carry blood to a vein, a larger
blood vessel that returns blood to the heart.
Artery
• Carry blood away from the heart to body tissues and organs
• Thick elastic walls to withstand the high pressure of blood
• Blood moves in pulses created as the ventricles contract
• Valves are absent
• Blood is oxygenated except pulmonary artery
• Most lie deep within the body so they are protected

*** Arterioles contain muscles that contract during vasoconstriction

Veins
• Carry blood towards the heart from body tissues and organs
• Blood flows through smoothly and under low pressure, thus having thin walls and a wide lumen
• Possess valves to prevent the low pressure, slow flowing blood from flowing backwards
• Blood is deoxygenated except pulmonary vein
• Many lie close to the body

***Muscular movements in the body press on veins and assist the flow of blood back to the heart
Structure of Blood Vessels. (a) Arteries and (b) veins share the same general features, but the walls of arteries are
much thicker because of the higher pressure of the blood that flows through them. (c) A micrograph shows the
relative differences in thickness. LM × 160. (Micrograph provided by the Regents of the University of Michigan
Medical School © 2012)
Capillaries
• Have very thin walls only 1 cell thick
• Valves are absent
• Low pressure and slow flow of blood
• Oxygen and carbon dioxide is exchanged
• Run throughout all tissues and organs
• Carry blood from arterioles to venules
 Capillary bed
• Capillaries supply oxygen, nutrients and substances from the plasma to the cells
• These substances diffuse from the capillary into the tissue fluid surrounding body cells before entering
the cells
• Waste materials diffuse out of the cells and pass into the tissue fluid and then the capillary
• Some materials are drained away by lymph in the lymph vessels.

***Tissue fluid also known as interstitial fluid bathes and surrounds the cells of tissues

Differentiate between
plasma, tissue fluid
and lymph
Video on next slide!