Background Information: Purple Group

A. Model what happens to the circulatory and respiratory systems while a patient is
hooked up to a heart–lung machine during surgery.
During heart surgery, it can be difficult for a doctor to operate on a beating heart. The surgeon may choose
to stop the patient’s heart and, instead, use a heart–lung machine to do the work of the heart and lungs.
First, tubes are hooked up to the heart. These tubes carry oxygen-poor blood from the heart to a reservoir, or
holding tank. The blood goes through another machine, called an oxygenator, that removes carbon dioxide
and adds oxygen to the blood. This is usually what happens in the lungs. The blood is then pumped back into
the body through the tubes in the heart, so oxygen can be delivered to all the cells of the body during surgery.
When the surgery is complete, the heart–lung machine is slowly turned off while the patient’s heart and lungs
resume working normally.

Heart–Lung Machine
Pump

Oxygenator red = oxygen-rich blood

blue = oxygen-poor blood

Reservoir

Arrows indicate the direction of blood flow.

B. Model how molecules get to the cells of the body when a

person eats a meal of starch, protein, and fat.
Many foods contain fat molecules, one of the molecules that cells need. The fat
molecules in the foods that people eat are large molecules. These molecules
need to be broken down during digestion, just like proteins and starches.
Enzymes in the small intestine help break down most fats into smaller molecules
called lipids. These smaller molecules can then enter the circulatory system and
be delivered to cells where they do several important jobs.

© 2016 The Regents of the University of California. Image credit: Shutterstock.

 C. Model what happens to the body
when a person holds his breath.
Nerve cells at the base of the brain control how the
respiratory system works to take in oxygen and
remove carbon dioxide. When a person holds his
breath, there are changes to the amount of oxygen
and carbon dioxide in the blood. The amount of
carbon dioxide in the blood increases while the
amount of oxygen in the blood decreases. When the
nerve cells detect that oxygen levels in the blood
are too low or the carbon dioxide levels in the blood
are too high, the nerve cells send signals to the
respiratory system to increase the breath rate, which
forces the person holding his breath to exhale and
breathe faster.

D. Model what Rachel’s body and cells

would look like if she were getting an IV
injection of glucose and amino acids.
Sometimes, a patient’s cells need more glucose and
amino acids than they are getting. To deliver more of
these molecules quickly, a nurse or doctor will insert
an intravenous (IV) drip into a vein in the patient’s
arm. A hollow needle is inserted directly into the
vein, the needle is attached to a tube, and the tube
is connected to a bag that has glucose and amino
acid molecules in it, mixed with water. The glucose and amino acids in the IV go through the tube and into
the patient’s bloodstream through the needle. This adds glucose and amino acid molecules directly into the
circulatory system, which delivers those molecules to all the cells of the body.

© 2016 The Regents of the University of California. Image credit: iStockphoto; Shutterstock.