Blood Transport System

PE Revision
Introduction
The role of the blood transport system:
 To move blood to all parts of the body and specifically transporting the oxygen
supplied by the lungs to the muscles so that they can produce the energy they
require for contraction.

The role of blood:

 Transports oxygen and carbon dioxide.
 Transports other important substances such as glucose, amino acids and nutrients.
 Transports hormones which allow cells to communicate with each other.
 Prevents body from infection through clotting to prevent blood loss.
Components of Blood – Transport of
Gases
Transport of carbon dioxide:
Blood carries C02 around the body in 3 main ways:
 Hydrogen ions and bicarbonate ions (70%)
 Combines with haemoglobin to form
carbaminohaemoglobin (23%)
 Dissolved into the plasma (7%)

Transport of oxygen:
Blood carries and transports 02 in 2 ways:
 Carried by haemoglobin found in red blood cell’s
and combines to form oxyhaemoglobin (97%)
 Dissolved in the blood plasma (3%)

Myoglobin:
An iron based protein similar to haemoglobin. However:
 It is only found in skeletal muscles
 It transports oxygen throughout the muscle tissues
 It has a higher affinity for oxygen than haemoglobin
Circulation
Vessel Definition
Artery Thick – walled blood vessel carrying blood away from the heart
Veins Thin – walled blood vessel carrying blood towards the heart
Arterioles Small arteries
Venules Small veins
Capillaries Tiny blood vessels supplying nutrients to cells and removing
waste materials

Every part of the body has a major artery supplying it with oxygenated blood from the heart

The arterioles (branches of smaller arteries) take the blood to the various parts of the body

The capillaries then take the oxygenated blood directly into the muscles for respiration (at the capillary bed)

Once, diffusion at the muscle cells has taken place, the venules at the muscles transport the deoxygenated blood into the
larger veins

The major veins transport the oxygenated blood back to the heart and lungs
Types of Circulation (Double)
Pulmonary Circulation:
 Definition: deoxygenated blood from the heart to
the lungs (where it becomes deoxygenated) and
back to the heart, picking up oxygen.
 Main role: oxygenating the blood (that will be
pumped to the body cells by systemic circulation).

Systemic circulation:
 Definition: oxygenated blood carried from the heart
to the body tissues and back to the heart.
 Main role: carry the blood that will provide the body
cells and tissues with oxygen and nutrients for
respiration.
Structure of Blood Vessels

Part of blood vessel Description/definition Found in...

Tunica intima/interna Innermost layer of blood vessels, made up Arteries
of endothelial cells. Veins
Tunica media Middle layer of a blood vessel, made up of Arteries
smooth muscle cells and elastic tissue. Veins
Tunica adventitia/externa Outermost layer of a blood vessel, mainly Arteries
composed of collagen and elastic fibres Veins
Endothelium Thin layer of cells that lines the interior of a Arteries
blood vessel, made up of endothelial cells Veins
Capillaries (one endothelium layer
thick)
Valves Made from two flaps of elastic tissue, stop Veins
blood backflow
Redistribution of Blood During Exercise
Background:
 There is a limited amount of blood within the body (4-5 litres) and miles of capillaries and blood vessels that could be filled
with blood.
 This means that there is ‘competition’ for blood between different regions of the body , especially during exercise when blood
must be shunted to the working muscles and withdrawn from other regions.

How redistribution of blood is achieved

Achieved by vasoconstriction and vasodilation:
 Vasoconstriction: reducing the flow of blood into the capillaries by the action of sympathetic nerves. Control of blood
shunting is regulated automatically through the sympathetic nervous system, and stimulation from these nerves cause the
smooth muscle in arterioles and the pre-capillary sphincters (rings of muscle) to contract. Vasoconstriction reduces the
diameter of the blood vessels which in turn reduces the flow of blood to the capillaries.
 Vasodilation: increasing the flow of blood into the capillaries.
The sympathetic nerves also act as vasodilaters in cardiac muscle
and skeletal muscle, increasing the diameter of the blood vessels
supplying the tissue (by relaxing the pre-capillary sphincters).
There are also other factors which cause vasodilation such as;
a drop in oxygen and rise in carbon dioxide levels, an increase
in blood acidity and movement in the joints and tendons.
These factors create automatic vasodilation because they
are the result of muscle action.

Why should performers not eat immediately before exercise?

 After eating there will be a demand for blood to pass through the gut to digest food. If exercising begins there will also be a
demand for blood to flow to the working muscles.
 There is not enough blood in the body to deal with both digestion and exercise efficiently at the same time. This will limit the
blood flow to the muscles and therefore decrease performance.
Redistribution of Blood During Exercise
Practice exam question
How is blood distribution controlled within the body during exercise (6 marks)
 Control of blood shunting is regulated automatically by the sympathetic nervous system,
through receptors that detect the condition of the blood in the body (for example,
baroreceptors that detect blood pressure).
 Messages from body receptors about body conditions are sent to the brain (medulla
oblongata), and impulses are sent down the sympathetic nervous system to the areas of the
body where blood is needed.
 Stimulation by the sympathetic nerve causes the smooth muscle in the arterioles and the pre-
capillary sphincters to contract, and vasoconstriction occurs, reducing the diameter of the
capillaries and reducing the amount of blood flow to a particular area (e.g. for digestion).
 The same sympathetic nerves cause vasodilation (at the working muscles) in the arteries and
capillaries to occur, increasing the amount of blood that can flow through them.
 This process happens all over the body when blood needs to be distributed to the muscles
during exercise, e.g. vasoconstricition occurs at the capillaries in areas such as the kidneys, and
vasodilation occurs at the working muscles as there is a higher demand for oxygen in the
blood.
Blood Pressure and Velocity
 As the heart pumps blood through the blood vessels, the vessels offer resistance to the
flow of blood and this creates the blood pressure.
 Systolic pressure: pressure of the blood when the heart is contracting.
 Diastolic pressure: pressure of the blood when the heart is relaxing.
 There is a high systolic pressure as the blood leaves the heart and into the main arteries due to the contraction of the
heart.
Factors which affecting blood pressure:
 This blood pressure reduces as blood moves further away from the heart. This is because the resistance to flow of
the blood depends on the cross-sectional area of the blood vessels, and this increases as blood moves away from the
heart.
 Similarly, because smaller arterioles have a larger total surface area than the larger arteries, blood pressure also
falls as blood pressure gets smaller.
 The longer the blood vessel is, the longer the blood is in contact with the blood vessels walls and the greater the
effects of friction/resistance are.
 These effects of increasing cross sectional area and resistance to flow are even greater in the capillaries, where blood
pressure is so low that there is no pulsing flow of blood corresponding to systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
 This means that blood pressure diminishes as we move from arteries to arterioles to capillaries to venules to veins.
Factors affecting blood velocity:
 The velocity of blood also reduces as we move away from the heart. This is because of the increasing cross-
sectional area of the blood vessels concerned.
 However, blood velocity speeds up as it enters the venules and veins because the total cross-sectional area also
decreases in these vessels.
 Blood flows fastest in arteries, slower in small arterioles and the veins, and slowest in capillaries.
 Venous Return
 The pressure of blood in the veins is so low that it is insufficient to return the blood to the heart. This is
because we tend to be upright most of the day, and therefore flow of blood in the veins has to move against
gravity.
 Venous return: mechanisms involved to assist the return of blood to the heart.
Mechanisms aiding venous return:
Mechanism Explanation
Pocket valves •Valves found in veins
•Allow blood to flow towards the heart, but open to prevent blood
flowing back in the wrong direction.

Skeletal muscle pump •Muscle action squeezes veins and forces blood back towards the heart.
•Majority of our major veins lie in between muscles, or between muscles
and bones.
•When muscles contract, the veins get compressed, pushing blood back
into the heart.
•Exercise increases this effect, but if you suddenly stop exercising, the
skeletal muscle pump slows and results in ‘blood pooling’ in the muscles,
which means less blood is reaching the heart, potentially causing
dizziness.

Respiratory muscle pump •Breathing movements force blood to flow towards the heart.
•When we breathe in and out, there are pressure changes within the chest
cavity.
•Breathing out increases the pressure within the chest, and this
compresses the veins within the chest, forcing blood to flow towards the
heart.
•When we breathe in the diaphragm flattens; this squeezes the abdominal
organs against the veins and blood is forced back to the heart.
Oxyhaemoglobin Dissociation Curve
At the lungs: the oxygen concentration
is 100% saturated with oxygen as all the
haemoglobin is combined with oxygen

The Bohr Shift: change in shape –

movement to the right of the
oxyhaemoglobin dissociation curve
which results in the release of more
oxygen in exercising muscles

At the muscles: the percentage

saturation of oxygen in oxyhaemoglobin
is low as most of the oxygen has
dissociated into myoglobin
The Bohr Shift
Factors which cause the Bohr Shift to occur:
 Muscles need oxygen for respiration so oxygen is unloaded into muscle tissues
from haemoglobin.
 Increase in temperature (created by respiration and sweating) inhibits
haemoglobin’s ability to hold on to oxygen.
 Increase in blood acidity caused by an increase in carbon dioxide causes oxygen to
split more easily from haemoglobin.
Arterio-venous Oxygen Difference
 Definition: amount of oxygen removed from the blood by the muscles.
 Difference per 100cm cubed blood. Depends on the level of oxygen
extracted by the muscles.
 At rest, the arterio-venous difference is low, whereas during exercise the
arterio-venous difference is high due to the higher demand for oxygen at
the muscles.
 Training increases the arterio-venous difference, as trained individuals can
extract more oxygen from the blood.