Physiology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Physiology (/fzildi/; from Ancient Greek

(physis), meaning "nature, origin", and (-logia), meaning "study of"[1]) is the
scientific study of the normal function in living
systems.[2] A sub-discipline of biology, its focus is
in how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and
biomolecules carry out the chemical or physical
functions that exist in a living system.[3] Given the
size of the field, it is divided into, among others,
animal physiology (including that of humans), plant
physiology, cellular physiology, microbial
physiology (see microbial metabolism), bacterial
physiology, and viral physiology.[3] The Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to those
Oil painting depicting Claude Bernard, the father of
who make significant achievements in this
modern physiology, with his pupils
discipline by the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences. In medicine, a physiologic state is one
occurring from normal body function, rather than pathologically, which is centered on the abnormalities that
occur in animal diseases, including humans.[4]

Contents
1 History
2 Women in physiology
3 Timeline of developments
4 Subdisciplines
5 Human physiology
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
9 Bibliography
9.1 Human physiology
9.2 Animal physiology
9.3 Plant physiology

9.4 Fungi physiology

9.5 Protist physiology
9.6 Bacterial physiology

History
Physiological studies date back to ancient civilizations of India[5][6] and Egypt alongside anatomical studies
but did not utilize dissections and vivisection at that time.[7] The study of human physiology as a medical
field dates back to at least 420 BC to the time of Hippocrates, also known as the "father of medicine."[8]
Hippocrates incorporated his belief system called the theory of humours, which consisted of four basic
substance: earth, water, air and fire. Each substance is known for having a corresponding humour: black bile,
phlegm, blood and yellow bile, respectively. Hippocrates also noted some emotional connections to the four
humours, which Claudis Galenus would later expand on. The critical thinking of Aristotle and his emphasis
on the relationship between structure and function marked the beginning of physiology in Ancient Greece.
Like Hippocrates, Aristotle took to the humoral theory of disease, which also consisted of four primary
qualities in life: hot, cold, wet and dry.[9] Claudius Galenus (c. ~130200 AD), known as Galen of
Pergamum, was the first to use experiments to probe the functions of the body. Unlike Hippocrates though,
Galen argued that humoral imbalances can be located in specific organs, including the entire body.[10] His
modification of this theory better equipped doctors to make more precise diagnoses. Galen also played off of
Hippocrates idea that emotions were also tied to the humours, and added the notion of temperaments:
sanguine corresponds with blood; phlegmatic is tied to phlegm; yellow bile is connected to choleric; and
black bile corresponds with melancholy. Galen also saw the human body consisting of three connected
systems: the brain and nerves, which are responsible for thoughts and sensations; the heart and arteries,
which give life; and the liver and veins, which can be attributed to nutrition and growth.[10] To top it off,
Galen was also the founder of experimental physiology.[11] And for the next 1,400 years, Galenic
physiology was a powerful and influential tool in medicine.[10]
Jean Fernel (14971558), a French physician, introduced the term "physiology".[12]
In the 19th century, physiological knowledge began to accumulate at a rapid rate, in particular with the 1838
appearance of the Cell theory of Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann. It radically stated that organisms
are made up of units called cells. Claude Bernard's (18131878) further discoveries ultimately led to his
concept of milieu interieur (internal environment), which would later be taken up and championed as
"homeostasis" by American physiologist Walter B. Cannon in 1929. By homeostasis, Cannon meant "the
maintenance of steady states in the body and the physiological processes through which they are
regulated."[13] In other words, the body's ability to regulate its internal environment. It should be noted that,
William Beaumont was the first American to utilize the practical application of physiology.
The Physiological Society was founded in London in 1876 as a dining club. The meetings also contained
communications and demonstrations and the Society now has more than 3000 members. The American
Physiological Society (APS) is a nonprofit devoted to fostering education, scientific research, and
dissemination of information in the physiological sciences. The Society was founded in 1887 with 28

members. APS now has over 10,500 members. Anatomy and physiology, which study (respectively) the
structure and function of organisms, make a natural pair of related disciplines, and they are often studied
together.

Women in physiology
Initially, women were largely excluded from official involvement in any physiological society. The
American Physiological Society, for example, was founded in 1887 and included only men in its ranks. In
1902, the American Physiological Society elected Ida Hyde as the first female member of the society. Hyde,
a representative of the American Association of University Women and a global advocate for gender
equality in education,[14] attempted to promote gender equality in every aspect of science and medicine.
Soon thereafter, in 1913, J.S. Haldane proposed that women be allowed to formally join The Physiological
Society, which had been founded in 1876. On 3 July 1915, six women were officially admitted: Florence
Buchanan, Winifred Cullis, Ruth C. Skelton, Sarah C. M. Sowton, Constance Leetham Terry, and Enid M.
Tribe.[15] The centenary of the election of women was celebrated in 2015 with the publication of a book
"Women physiologists: centenary celebrations and beyond for The Physiological Society ISBN 978-09933410-0-7.
Prominent women physiologists include:
Gerty Cori,[16] along with husband Carl Cori, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in
1947 for their discovery of the phosphate-containing form of glucose known as glycogen, as well as
its function within eukaryotic metabolic mechanisms for energy production. Moreover, they
discovered the Cori cycle, also known as the Lactic acid cycle,[17] which describes how muscle tissue
converts glycogen into lactic acid via lactic acid fermentation.
Gertrude Elion,[18] along with George Hitchings and Sir James Black, received the Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for their development of drugs employed in the treatment of several
major diseases, such as leukemia, some autoimmune disorders, gout, malaria, and viral herpes.
Linda B. Buck,[19] along with Richard Axel, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in
2004 for their discovery of odorant receptors and the complex organization of the olfactory system.
Franoise Barr-Sinoussi,[20] along with Luc Montaginer, received the Nobel Prized in Physiology or
Medicine in 2008 for their work on the identification of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV),
the cause of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
Elizabeth Blackburn,[21] along with Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, was awarded the 2009 Nobel
Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the genetic composition and function of
telomeres and the enzyme called telomerase.

Timeline of developments
1858- Joseph Lister studied the cause of blood coagulation and inflammation that resulted after previous
injuries and surgical wounds. He later discovered and implemented antiseptics in the operating room, and as
a result decreases death rate from surgery by a substantial amount.[4][22]
1891- Ivan Pavlov performed research on "conditional reflexes" that involved dogs' saliva production in
response to a plethora of sounds and visual stimuli.[22]

In the 20th century, biologists also became interested in how organisms other than human beings function,
eventually spawning the fields of comparative physiology and ecophysiology.[23] Major figures in these
fields include Knut Schmidt-Nielsen and George Bartholomew. Most recently, evolutionary physiology has
become a distinct subdiscipline.[24]
1910 August Krogh, in 1920 won the Nobel Prize for discovering how, in capillaries, blood flow is
regulated.[22]
1954- Andrew Huxley and Hugh Huxley, alongside their research team, discovered the sliding filaments in
skeletal muscle, known today as the sliding filament theory.[22]
Today, and times before, physiologists continuously trying to find answers to important questions concerning
how populations interact, the environment on earth, and in single cell functions.[4]

Subdisciplines
There are many ways to categorize the subdiscplines of physiology:[25]
based on the taxa studied: human physiology, animal physiology, plant physiology, microbial
physiology, viral physiology
based on the level of organization: cell physiology, molecular physiology, systems physiology,
organismal physiology, ecological physiology, integrative physiology
based on the process that causes physiological variation: developmental physiology, environmental
physiology, evolutionary physiology
based on the ultimate goals of the research: applied physiology (e.g., medical physiology), nonapplied (e.g., comparative physiology)

Human physiology
Human physiology seeks to understand the mechanisms that work to
keep the human body alive and functioning,[3] through scientific
enquiry into the nature of mechanical, physical, and biochemical
functions of humans, their organs, and the cells of which they are
composed. The principal level of focus of physiology is at the level
of organs and systems within systems. The endocrine and nervous
systems play major roles in the reception and transmission of signals
that integrate function in animals. Homeostasis is a major aspect with
regard to such interactions within plants as well as animals. The
biological basis of the study of physiology, integration refers to the
overlap of many functions of the systems of the human body, as well
as its accompanied form. It is achieved through communication that
occurs in a variety of ways, both electrical and chemical.

The human skull at birth, with its

fontanelles, presents many important
anatomical and physiological features.

Much of the foundation of knowledge in human physiology was

provided by animal experimentation. Physiology is the study of
function and is closely related to anatomy which is the study of form and structure. Due to the frequent
connection between form and function, physiology and anatomy are intrinsically linked and are studied in
tandem as part of a medical curriculum.

See also
Plant physiology
Ecophysiology
Cell physiology
Neurophysiology
Cytoarchitecture
Applied physiology
Defense physiology
Exercise physiology
Fish physiology
Insect physiology
List of physiologists
Physiome
Metabolome
Metabolomics
Somatopsychic
Cybernetics

References
1. "physiology". Online Etymology Dictionary.
2. Prosser, C. Ladd (1991). Comparative Animal Physiology, Environmental and Metabolic Animal Physiology (4th
ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Liss. pp. 112. ISBN 0-471-85767-X.
3. Hall, John (2011). Guyton and Hall textbook of medical physiology (12th ed.). Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders/Elsevier.
p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4160-4574-8.
4. "What is physiology?". Medical News Today.
5. D. P. Burma and Maharani Chakravorty. From Physiology and Chemistry to Biochemistry. Pearson Education. p. 8.
6. Francis Zimmermann. The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats: An Ecological Theme in Hindu Medicine. Motilal
Banarsidass publications. p. 159.
7. "Medicine Across Cultures". google.com.
8. "Physiology". Science Clarified. Advameg, Inc. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
9. "Early Medicine and Physiology". ship.edu.
10. "Galen of Pergamum". Encyclopedia Britannica.
11. Fell, C.; Pearson, F. (November 2007). "Historical Perspectives of Thoracic Anatomy". Thoracic Surgery Clinics 17
(4): 4438. doi:10.1016/j.thorsurg.2006.12.001.
12. Wilbur Applebaum. Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution: From Copernicus to Newton. Routledge. p. 344.
13. Brown Theodore M., Fee Elizabeth (October 2002). "Walter Bradford Cannon: Pioneer Physiologist of Human
Emotions". American Journal of Public Health 92 (10): 15941595. doi:10.2105/ajph.92.10.1594. PMC 1447286.
14. "Ida Henrietta Hyde". jwa.org.
15. "Women in Physiology". physoc.org.
16. "Carl Cori and Gerty Cori". Encyclopedia Britannica.
17. "Cori cycle". TheFreeDictionary.com.
18. "Gertrude B. Elion". Encyclopedia Britannica.
19. "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004". nobelprize.org.
20. "Francoise Barre-Sinoussi - biography - French virologist". Encyclopedia Britannica.
21. "Elizabeth H. Blackburn". Encyclopedia Britannica.
22. "Milestones in Physiology (1822-2013)" (PDF). 1 October 2013. Retrieved 2015-07-25.
23. Feder, ME; Bennett, AF; WW, Burggren; Huey, RB (1987). New directions in ecological physiology. New York:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-34938-3.
24. Garland, Jr, Theodore; Carter, P. A. (1994). "Evolutionary physiology" (PDF). Annual Review of Physiology 56 (1):
579621. doi:10.1146/annurev.ph.56.030194.003051. PMID 8010752.
25. Moyes, C.D., Schulte, P.M. Principles of Animal Physiology, second edition. Pearson/Benjamin Cummings. Boston,
MA, 2008.

External links
The Physiological Society (http://www.physoc.org/)
physiologyINFO.org (http://www.physiologyinfo.org/) public
information site sponsored by The American Physiological
Society

Bibliography

Look up physiology in
Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.
Wikisource has original
works on the topic:
Physiology

Human physiology
Widmaier, E.P., Raff, H., Strang, K.T. Vander's Human Physiology. 11th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2009.
Marieb, E.N. Essentials of Human Anatomy and Physiology. 10th Edition, Benjamin Cummings,
2012.

Animal physiology
Hill, R.W., Wyse, G.A., Anderson, M. Animal Physiology, 3rd ed. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland,
2012.
Moyes, C.D., Schulte, P.M. Principles of Animal Physiology, second edition. Pearson/Benjamin
Cummings. Boston, MA, 2008.
Randall, D., Burggren, W., and French, K. Eckert Animal Physiology: Mechanism and Adaptation, 5th
Edition. W.H. Freeman and Company, 2002.
Schmidt-Nielsen, K. Animal Physiology: Adaptation and Environment. Cambridge & New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Withers, P.C. Comparative animal physiology. Saunders College Publishing, New York, 1992.

Plant physiology
Larcher, W. Physiological plant ecology (4th ed.). Springer, 2001.
Salisbury, F.B, Ross, C.W. Plant physiology. Brooks/Cole Pub Co., 1992
Taiz, L., Zieger, E. Plant Physiology (5th ed.), Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer, 2010.

Fungi physiology
Griffin, D.H. Fungal Physiology, Second Edition. Wiley-Liss, New York, 1994.

Protist physiology
Levandowsky, M. Physiological Adaptations of Protists. In: Cell physiology sourcebook: essentials of
membrane biophysics. Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier/AP, 2012.
Algae physiology
Lobban, C.S., Harrison, P.J. Seaweed ecology and physiology. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Stewart, W. D. P. (ed.). Algal Physiology and Biochemistry. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford,
1974.
Protozoa physiology

Levandowski, M., Hutner, S.H. (eds). Biochemistry and physiology of protozoa. Volumes 1, 2, and 3.
Academic Press: New York, NY, 1979; 2nd ed.
Laybourn-Parry J. A Functional Biology of Free-Living Protozoa. Berkeley, California: University of
California Press; 1984.

Bacterial physiology
El-Sharoud, W. (ed.). Bacterial Physiology: A Molecular Approach. Springer-Verlag, BerlinHeidelberg, 2008. ISBN 9783540749202
Kim, B.H., Gadd, M.G. Bacterial Physiology and Metabolism. Cambridge, 2008. ISBN
9780521712309
Moat, A.G., Foster, J.W., Spector, M.P. Microbial Physiology, 4th ed. Wiley-Liss, Inc. New York, NY,
2002. ISBN 9780471461197
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Physiology&oldid=720692499"
Categories: Physiology
This page was last modified on 17 May 2016, at 11:08.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.