4.
Vasoconstriction –narrowing of blood capillaries
under the skin in order to prevent loss of heat when
the core temperature begins to fall.
•More blood flows through the deeper blood vessels
of the skin as a result.
5. Piloerection (pulling the hair up right) in colder
condition. Erector muscles under the skin contract.
This pulls the hairs upright, trapping an insulating
layer of air which is very effective at conserving
heat.
3.5. Homeostasis
•The word homeostasis comes from the Greek
words homoios, which
means ‘like’ or ‘the same’and stasis, which
means‘state’– keeping the conditions of internal
environment in the same state all the time.
The major factor that should be constant in the
body are:
The sugar (glucose) level of the blood.
Body temperature
Salt and water balance of the body
Removal of excretory product such as urea and
carbon dioxide
The PH level of the body’s tissues and organs.
The organs of Homeostasis
The major organ of homeostasis are:
Skin
Kidneys
Lungs
Liver.
Controlling temperature
•It is vitally One of the most important factors
which animals need to control is the internal or
core body temperature.
•It vitally important that our body temperature is
maintained at the temperature (around 37 °C)at which
our enzymes work best.
•Living organisms are continually gaining heat from
cellular respiration and by conduction, convection and
radiation from their surroundings. They are also
constantly losing heat by the
evaporation of water from the body surfaces and by
conduction, convection and radiation to their surround
ings.
•Radiation : is diffusion of warmer body to the
relatively cooler objects with the air
•Conduction: is transfer of heat from the hotter to
the cooler objects are in contact.
•Convection: is transfer of heat between an
organism and environment by the currents of air or
which is in contact between the surfaces of an
organism.
It is the balance of these gains and losses that gives
the core temperature.
Based on their temperature regulating mechanisms
organisms can be classified as:
Poikilotherms (ectoderms) animals whose internal
temperature varies along with that of the ambient
environmental temperature.
e.g. amphibians, reptiles and fishes
Homoiotherms >
(endoderms) animals whose
internal temperature is relatively constant
and independent of the environmental temperature
e.g. birds and mammals.
Temperature control in poikilotherms
•They use different mechanisms for regulating
their body temperature.
In colder condition they:
bask in the sun
press their bodies close to a warm surface
erect special sails or areas of skin which will
allow them to absorb more heat from the sun
When they are getting too hot they may:
move into the shade
move into water or mud
•Temperature control in homoiotherms
•Body temperatures of homoiotherms are controlled
by a number of physiological, morphological and
behavioural mechanisms.
i. Physiological methods of temperature
regulation
1. Sweating – Sweat is made up mainly of water
and salt but also contains a small amount of
nitrogenous waste.
•It has a cooling effect on the body
2. Vasodilatation – is the process in which the
capillaries under the skin surface dilate, when the
body temperature rises.
•The skin flushes and more heat is lost through
radiation from the surface. Less blood flows through
the slightly deeper vessels in the skin as a result.
3. Panting and licking – are used by animals
covered by thick fur
.
6. Shivering and metabolic responses – shivering
results as muscles contract and relax rapidly, this
involves lots of cellular respiration.
•This releases some energy as heat which is used to
raise the body temperature.
7. Fat layer under the skin (subcutaneous fat)
• This prevents unwanted heat loss. It is particularly
noticeable in animals which live in very cold
conditions, for example, seals and whales.
•The very thick layer of fat under their skin is known
as blubber.
ii. Behavioural methods of temperature
regulation
Animals living in different climatic conditions
have their own behavioural adaptation by which
they react to temperature changes. These are:
1. Clothing
2. Seeking shade or shelter
3. Taking high calorie of food in cold condition
4. Burning fires, central heating and air
conditioning.
5. Hibernation: is a condition in which organism go
into a very deep sleep in colder seasons, during this
condition the wall metabolic rates drop.
6. Aestivation: is a condition in which some animals
hide them underground or under layer of mud and go
into deep sleep in warmer condition.
7. Wallowing or bathing: Some larger animals are
wallowing in mud or bathing in water the animals
cover themselves in water and the water evaporates
from the surface of their skin, cooling them down.
iii. Morphological methods of temperature
regulation
•Surface-area-to-volume ratio is an important factor.
•Smaller people – such as children – have a much
bigger surface area to volume ratio than larger people
heat is lost through the surface of the body – so small
people lose heat relatively faster than larger people. As
a result babies, children and small adults are more at
risk of becoming too cold than larger people.
•Big people, on the other hand, have a greater risk of
overheating as their relatively
small surface area to volume ratio means they
cannot lose large amounts of heat effectively.
Controlling the body temperature
•The body temperature is regulated by a regulatory
center in the brain called hypothalamus
•Thermoregulatory centre detects change in
temperature , the first responses are conscious but if
the core temperature starts to move in one direction
or the other , automatic body response take over
•The control of the body temperature is example of a
negative feedback loop
•The feed back control of body temperature involves
the thermoregulatory centre in the brain and the skin.
When the body temperature rises
•Thermoregulatory center the body responses
triggered
•Lots of sweet
•Hairs lie flat
•Blood vessels supplying capillaries near the surface
dilate
•The blood flow through the capillaries increases and
more heat is lost
•Body temperature falls
When body temperature falls
• Thermo regulatory center the body response
triggered:
•No sweat
•Hair pulled erect to trap insulating layer of air
•Blood vessels supplying capillaries near the surface
of the skin contract
•The blood flow through the capillaries decreases
and less heat is lost
•The body temperature rises
Homeostasis and the kidneys
•Excretion-getting rid of the waste products which could build up in the bo
and damage the cells
•The two main metabolic wastes are urea and carbon dioxide.
•The organs which are involved in getting rid of these metabolic wastes are
known as excretory organs.
•The main excretory organs in the body are the lungs, kidneys and skin .
The carbon dioxide produced during cellular
respiration is almost all removed from the body via
the lungs during exhalation.
As the carbon dioxide levels go up, the breathing
rate goes up which makes the carbon dioxide levels
fall, so the breathing rate returns to normal as well.
Urea is produced in the liver when excess amino
acids are broken down.
The amino acids are converted into carbohydrate
and ammonia.
The ammonia is then combined with carbon
dioxide (getting rid of another metabolic waste) to
make urea.
The urea which is produced is a form of
nitrogenous waste and it leaves the liver via the
blood. The urea is then fltered out of the blood by the
kidneys and removed in the urine.
Controlling the internal concentration
If the concentration of the body fluid changes, water
will move into or out of the cells by osmosis and they
could be damaged or destroyed.
The water balance is maintained by the kidneys.
If the body is short of water, very little urine is
produced and more water is saved for use in the
body. If the water content of the blood is too much
then the kidneys produce lots of urine to get rid of
the excess.
It is also most important in keeping an ion
balance. Excess mineral ions are removed by the
kidneys and lost in the urine.
Control of the water and electrolyte (ion) balance
in the body called osmoregulation
The kidneys
Kidneys are vitally important in two aspects of
homeostasis, both in excretion and in
osmoregulation.
Blood flows into the kidney along the renal artery.
The blood is fltered, so fluid containing water, salt,
urea, glucose and many other substances is forced
out into the kidney tubules. Then everything the body
needs is taken back (reabsorbed).
The amount of water reabsorbed depends on the
needs of the body. The waste product urea, excess
ions and water not needed by the body are released as
urine.
Each kidney has a very rich blood supply and is
made up of millions of tiny microscopic tubules
(nephrons).
Longitudinal section of kidneys
The outer region of the kidney is called while the
inner region is called medulla.
The medulla consists of pyramids that open into a
hallow chamber of pelvis.
Nephrons are functional units of the kidney in
which blood filtration and reabsorption takes place.
Structure and functions of different areas of
nephrons
1. Bowman’s capsule: the site of the ultrafiltration
of the blood.
The blood vessel feeding into the capsule is wider
than the vessel leaving the capsule, which means the
blood in the capillaries is under a lot of pressure.
Several layers of cells – the wall of the blood
capillaries and the wall of the capsule – act as a
filter and the blood cells and the large blood
proteins cannot leave the blood vessels. However,
water, salt, glucose, urea and many other
substances are forced out into the start of the
tubule.
Ultrafiltration the removal of excess water and
other substances from the blood
2. Glomerulus: the knot of blood vessels in the
Bowman’s capsule where the pressure builds up so
that ultrafiltration occurs.
The volume of blood leaving the glomerulus is
about 15% less than the blood coming in – which is a
measure of the liquid which has moved into the
capsule as a result of ultrafiltration.
3. Renal tubules – are long narrow tubules which
are divided into three regions. These are:
I. First convoluted (proximal) tubule
•The liquid which enters this first tubule is known as
the glomerular filtrate.
•glomerular filtrate the liquid resulting from
fltration in the Bowman’s capsule
•The first tubule is where much of the reabsorption
takes place.
•All of the glucose is actively taken back into the
blood along with around 67% of the sodium ions and
around 80% of the water.
•It has many microvilli to increase the surface
area for absorption
II. Loop of Henlé: where the urine is concentrated
and more water is conserved.
III. Second convoluted (Distal) tubule: where the
main water balancing is done. If the body is short of
water, more is reabsorbed into the blood in this tubule
under the influence of the anti-diuretic hormone or
ADH
•By the end of this second coiled tubule all of the salt
which is needed by the body has been reabsorbed,
leaving the excess in the filtrate along with most of
the urea.
4. Collecting duct
Where the liquid (essentially urine) is collected.
•It contains about 1% of the original water, with no
glucose at all. The level of salt in the urine will
depend on the amount of salt in the diet and the water
content of the urine.
• There is also a much higher concentration of urea in
the urine than in the blood, but if the body badly
needs more water, more may be reabsorbed along the
collecting duct – again under the influence of ADH –
until the urine passes into the pyramid of the kidney
and on the bladder.
The amount of water lost from the kidney in the
urine is controlled by a sensitive feedback mechanism
involving the hormone ADH.
•If the water content of the blood is too low special
sense organs known as Osmoreceptors
in the brain detect this. They stimulate the pituitary
gland in the brain to release ADH into the blood.
The hormone making them more permeable so more
water is reabsorbed back into the blood. This means
less water is left t in the kidney tubules and so more
concentrated urine is formed. At the same time the
amount of water in the blood increases and so the
concentration of salts in the blood returns to normal.
If the water content of the blood is too high, the
pituitary gland releases much less ADH into the
blood. The kidney then reabsorbs less water back into
the blood, producing a large volume of dilute urine.
Water is effectively lost from the blood and
concentration of salts returns to normal.
The system of osmoregulation is an example of
negative feedback. As the water concentration of
the blood falls, the level of ADH produced rises.
Then as the water concentration of the blood rises
again, the level of ADH released falls.
The urinary system of humans
•The human urinary system consists of the organs
of the body which are involved in the removal of
urine from the body.
The parts of urinary system are
i. Ureter: is a tube which carries the urine from the
kidneys to urinary bladder.
ii. Urinary bladder: is a muscular sac which can hold
between 600 and 800 cm3 urine.
iii. Sphincter muscles: a strong ring of muscle at the
base of bladder to control the release of urine to
urethra. We can open and close this sphincter
voluntarily, although it also opens as a reflex action if
the bladder is too full – or if we are very frightened.
iv. Urethra: the tube that leads from the bladder to the
outside world
