ASB1115

CHAPTER 8 - Transport in mammals

After we are done with this, you should be
able to...
• describe the structure of the mammalian circulatory system
• relate the structures of arteries, veins and capillaries to their functions
• describe and explain the structure and functions of blood, including
oxygen transport
• describe and explain the formation of tissue fluid and lymph
• explain the structure and function of the heart
• describe the cardiac cycle and its control
Artificial heart... When you still need to live
Introduction
• How do you see the different in energy requirement between plants
and animals?
• The search of foods requires a lot of energy - Mechanism to control
this is necessary - Nervous system.
• Small organisms such as Paramecium conducts transportation such as
gases & waste products by diffusion.
• However, larger animals need more than diffusion to transport
nutrients, oxygen and waste products.
The mammalian cardiovascular system
• Blood system or cardiovascular
system. It is made up of a pump, the
heart, and a system of
interconnecting tubes, the blood
vessels.
• Blood will always be in the vessel -
closed system.
• Blood will travel twice to the heart in
a circuit.
 Systemic circulation

1. From left ventrical, blood flow out

through aorta.
Double circulation 2. Travel throughout the body except
lung.
3. Return to the heart through vena kava
into right atrium.

Pulmonary circulation

4. From right ventrical, blood flow out

into pulmonary arteries.
5. Travel to the lungs.
6. Then return to the left side of heart via
pulmonary veins.
Blood vessels
• Artery - carries blood away from the heart.
• Vein - carries blood towards the heart.
• Capillary - small vessels in between artery & vein that supplies blood in
to cells.
Arteries
• Function - to transport blood faster and at high pressure to the tissue.
• Three layers of artery:
• an inner endothelium (lining tissue), called the tunica intima, made up of a layer of flat
cells (squamous epithelium); this layer is very smooth, minimising friction with the
moving blood.
• a middle layer called the tunica media (‘middle coat’), containing smooth muscle,
collagen & elastic fibres.
• an outer layer called the tunica externa (‘outer coat’), containing elastic fibres &
collagen fibres.
• Blood pressure in the human aorta may be around 120mmHg, or 16 kPa -
strong & elastic
• Artery (the thickest) such as aorta has 2.5 cm diameter & 2 mm thick.
• Blood is pumped out in pulses - out at high
pressure as the ventricles contract, and
slowing as the ventricles relax.
• Artery walls stretch as the high-pressure
blood surges into them, and then recoil
inwards as the pressure drops.
• Artery becomes wider, reducing the
pressure a little.
• As blood at lower pressure enters an artery,
the artery wall recoils inwards, giving the
blood a small ‘push’ and raising the
pressure a little.
• The overall effect is to ‘even out’ the flow
of blood.
• Then, as the blood that flows through arteries reach the tissue, blood
enters into smaller arteries - arterioles (more smooth muscle).
• Arterioles contract - narrow - reduce the blood flow (control the flow
based on certain condition).
• Pressure in arteriole while blood flowing - 85 mmHg
• Pressure in arteriole while blood leaving - 35 mmHg
Capillaries
• From arterioles -> capillaries - to take
blood as close as possible to the cells.
• Capillaries (capillary beds) exist anywhere
in the tissue EXCEPT cornea & cartilage.
• Diameter of capillary is 7 μm.
• There are tiny gaps between cells that
build the wall of capillary.
• allow some components to flow through to
form tissue fluid.
• By the time the blood reaches the end of
capillaries, the pressure dropped to 10
mmHg.
Veins
• Joining of capillaries to become larger vessel - venules - veins.
• Function - to bring back blood to the heart.
• Once blood enters vein, pressure drop to 5 mmHg (So, the veins need thick wall
or not?)
• Some veins are at the bottom of the body, then with low pressure, how blood can
move back to heart?
• To keep blood move in one direction - semilunar valves
Blood plasma & tissue fluid
• Other than cells in the blood is called plasma.
• Plasma contains water & solutes such as nutrient @ waste product
(urea).
• Protein in plasma is called plasma protein.
• Some of plasma will leak (tissue fluid) into the gap between cells in
capillary & fill the spaces between cells.
• Tissue fluid has similar composition with plasma but has fewer proteins
(too large to pass through gaps).
• WBC can squeeze through the gaps & be in the tissue fluid.
• The volume of of fluid flow out of capillary depends on 2 opposing pressures;
• at the end of capillary - pushing fluid out of capillary
• osmotic pressure due to high conc. of protein in the capillary, forces the
fluid to move back into capillary
• Normally, more fluid flow out of capillary.
• High blood pressure can cause the fluid to
accumulate in the spaces between cells -
oedema.
• Through tissue fluid that exchanges of
materials between cells & the blood occur.
• Within our bodies, many processes take
place to maintain the composition of tissue
fluid at a constant level, to provide an
optimum environment in which cells can
work.
• These processes contribute to the overall
process of homeostasis – that is, the
maintenance of a constant internal
environment – and include the regulation
of glucose concentration, water, pH,
metabolic wastes and temperature.
Lymph
• 90% of fluid that exits the capillary will return into capillary.
• Only 10% will remain in the outer space & will return into the blood system via
lymph vessel / lymphatics.
• Tiny, blind-ending vessel.
• Has valves to allow water to enter &
avoid leaking.
• The valves will also allow large proteins
to pass through.
• to provide the balance in the protein
concentration between tissue fluid and
blood.
• The fluid inside the lymphatic is called
lymph.
• Different parts in the tissues will have different
composition of proteins in the fluid.
• Lymphatics will join together to form larger
vessels to transport back the lymph into the
veins - this vein is called subclavian vein.
• Along lymphatics, there are lymph nodes that
have antibodies to kill the bacteria & unwanted
particles when they pass through the nodes.
Blood
• You have about 5dm3 of blood in your body, with a mass of about 5 kg.
• Suspended in the blood plasma, you have around 2.5×1013 red blood cells,
5×1011 white blood cells and 6×1012 platelets (small cell fragments with no
nucleus)
Red blood cells
• Also called erythrocytes, which simply means ‘red cells’.
• Their red colour is caused by the pigment haemoglobin, a globular protein.
• The main function of haemoglobin is to transport oxygen from lungs to respiring
tissues.
• First red blood cells are formed in the liver,
while still a fetus inside the uterus.
• Baby is born - liver has stopped
manufacturing red blood cells - bone
marrow takes over.
• Starts with long bones such as the humerus
& femur then increasingly in the skull, ribs,
pelvis & vertebrae, throughout life.
• Do not live long; their membranes become
fragile & rupture.
• Structure and characteristics of RBC:
• Biconcave disc. Increases the amount of surface area in relation to the volume of
the cell.
• Very small. Diameter of a human RBC is about 7μm, compared with the
diameter of an average liver cell of 40μm.
• Very flexible. Some capillaries are even narrower than the diameter of a red
blood cell.
• No nucleus, no mitochondria & no endoplasmic reticulum. The lack of these
organelles means that there is more room for haemoglobin.
White blood cell
• Also known as leucocyte - made in bone marrow.
• Structures of WBC:
• WBC all have a nucleus, although the shape of this varies in different types of white cell
• most WBC are larger than red blood cells, although one type, lymphocytes, may be
slightly smaller
• white blood cells are either spherical or irregular in shape, never looking like a biconcave
disc.
• Types of WBC:
• Phagocytes - destroy invading microorganisms. E.g. neutrophils - can be recognised by
the lobed nuclei and granular cytoplasm. Monocytes (Figure 8.13) are also phagocytes.
• Lymphocytes - destroy microorganisms - secrete chemicals called antibodies, which
attach to and destroy the invading cells.
Hemoglobin

• Each hemoglobin can carry 8 atoms of O.

Hemoglobin dissociative curve
• Hemoglobin must efficient in pick up & release the oxygen.
• Investigation of how hemoglobin behaves towards oxygen.
• Blood extracted is exposed to partial pressure of oxygen.
• The amount of oxygen combined with the blood is measured.
• Maximum amount of oxygen that can combine with blood is given 100%.
• Sample of hemoglobin that combined with the max oxygen is said to be saturated.
• Dissociation curve can be plotted for partial pressure of oxygen against percentage of
saturation.
• The low the partial pressure, the low
the percentage saturation of
hemoglobin.
• High partial pressure will ensure that
the hemoglobin will combine with
the oxygen available.
• Lung carries a lot of oxygen - as it
reaches muscle, 75% of the blood will
be released to the tissue.
S-shaped curve
• Oxygen that combine with iron in a haem group will make the hemoglobin to
change its shape.
• This can make the second oxygen to bind with the second iron and so on.
• When the first oxygen bind with haem group, it will make the second & third
oxygen to bind easily - steep rise in the curve.

The Bohr shift

• The oxygen carried by hemoglobin can be influenced by CO2 as well that is
released as waste product of respiration.
• Cont.
• In the cytoplasm of RBC there is an enzyme, carbonic anhydrase, that catalyses
the following reaction:

• Haemoglobin readily combines with the H ions, forming haemoglobinic acid,

HHb - it releases the oxygen which it is carrying.
• The net result of this reaction is two-
fold.
• The haemoglobin ‘mops up’ the
hydrogen ions which are formed when
carbon dioxide dissolves and dissociates.
A high concentration of hydrogen ions
means a low pH; if the hydrogen ions
were left in solution, the blood would be
very acidic maintains the pH in the
blood - buffer.
• High partial pressure of CO2 causes
haemoglobin to release oxygen - Bohr
effect. It is exactly what is needed. High
concentrations of carbon dioxide are
found in actively respiring tissues, which
need oxygen.
Carbon dioxide transport
• Several ways of transportation:
• Hydrogencarbonate ions (HCO3-) in
the cytoplasm of RBC diffuse into the
plasma - 85%.
• 5% of CO2 will remain and dissolve in
the blood.
• Some CO2 will remain in the
cytoplasm of RBC and combine with
terminal amine group of hemoglobin -
carbaminohemoglobin - 10%.
Problems with oxygen transport
• Carbon monoxide
• Hemoglobin can perfectly (250 times better than O2 combine with CO -
carboxyhemoglobin
• Can cause death by asphyxiation - deprive of oxygen - unconcious / death.
• Treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning involves administration of a mixture
of pure O2 and CO2: high concentrations of oxygen to favour the combination
of haemoglobin with oxygen rather than carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide
to stimulate an increase in the breathing rate.
• High altitude
• Higher altitude, less partial pressure, less hemoglobin saturation, less oxygen
carried in the blood.
Heart
• The heart of an adult human has a mass of around 300 g.
• The muscle of which the heart is made is called cardiac muscle.
• It is made of interconnecting cells, whose cell surface membranes are
very tightly joined together.
• This close contact between the muscle cells allows waves of electrical
excitation to pass easily between them, which is a very important
feature of cardiac muscle.
To create higher pressure &
to transport the blood in
greater distant.
The cardiac cycle
• Heart beats - around 70 times a minute.
• Cardiac cycle is the sequence of events - one heart beat.
• Three stages:
Control of heart beat
• Cardiac muscle - myogenic - naturally contracts and relaxes; it does
not need to receive impulses from a nerve to make it contract.
• If cardiac muscle cells are cultured in a warm, oxygenated solution
containing nutrients, they contract and relax rhythmically, all by
themselves.
• But they must contract in rythm - refer to picture next.
Electrocardiograms
• Electrodes can be placed on the skin over opposite sides of the heart, and the
electrical potentials generated recorded with time.
• The part labelled P represents the wave of excitation sweeping over the
atrial walls. The parts labelled Q, R and S represent the wave of excitation in
the ventricle walls. The T section indicates the recovery of the ventricle
walls.
End of Chapter 8...