Question 1:

Discuss general characteristics of homoeostatic control system with balance concept and
components of chemical homeostasis.
Answer:

a) Homeostasis Control Systems

Homeostasis control systems comprises the dynamic processes that enable optimum
conditions to be maintained for cells, in spite of continual changes taking place internally and
externally. All the systems of the human body are involved, with particular contributions by
the endocrine, nervous, respiratory and renal systems. Whenever an imbalance occurs,
regulatory systems become active to restore optimum conditions, usually by a process known
as negative feedback in which a deviation from the normal level is detected and initiates
changes that bring the level back to where it should be. These systems have to endure for
survival and adapt to modifications of the environment so must therefore evolve.
Many factors affect the suitability of body fluids to sustain life. 
 Oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations;
 The pH of the internal environment;
 Concentrations of nutrients and waste products;
 Concentration of salt and other electrolytes (osmoregulation);
 Volume and pressure of extracellular fluid;
 Body temperature;
 Blood glucose level.
As these properties affect the chemical reactions that sustain life, there are built-in
physiological mechanisms to maintain them at desirable levels. The body needs homeostasis
to maintain stability and survive by ensuring that the internal environment remains relatively
constant.
To enable cells to survive, the composition of the intracellular and extracellular fluids must
be accurately maintained at all times. Intracellular fluid accounts for two-thirds of total water
content. Extracellular fluid includes gases, nutrients, plasma (in blood vessels) and ions, all of
which are necessary for maintaining life.
Extracellular fluid circulates constantly within the blood and lymphatic system and is known
as ‘the body’s internal environment’.
 The body is said to be in homeostasis when its internal environment contains:
Optimum levels of gases, ions, water and nutrients;
Is at optimal temperature;
Has optimal pressure for the health of cells.
A disturbance in these optimum conditions causes failure of the organs and may lead to death
 b) Basic Concepts in Homeostasis Control Systems
Homeostasis regulates an organism ‘s internal environment and maintains a stable, constant
condition of properties like temperature and pH. Homeostasis can be influenced by either
internal or external conditions and is maintained by many different mechanisms. All
homeostatic control mechanisms have at least three interdependent components for the
variable being regulated:
 A sensor or receptor detects changes in the internal or external environment. An example is
peripheral chemoreceptors, which detect changes in blood pH.
 The integrating center or control center receives information from the sensors and initiates
the response to maintain homeostasis. The most important example is the hypothalamus, a
region of the brain that controls everything from body temperature to heart rate, blood
pressure, satiety (fullness), and circadian rhythms (sleep and wake cycles).
 An effector is any organ or tissue that receives information from the integrating center and
acts to bring about the changes needed to maintain homeostasis. One example is the kidney,
which retains water if blood pressure is too low.
The sensors, integrating center, and effectors are the basic components of every homeostatic
response. Positive and negative feedback are more complicated mechanisms that enable these
three basic components to maintain homeostasis for more complex physiological processes
Positive Feedback
Positive feedback is a mechanism in which an output is enhanced in order to maintain
homeostasis. Positive feedback mechanisms are designed to accelerate or enhance the output
created by a stimulus that has already been activated. Positive feedback mechanisms are
designed to push levels out of normal ranges. To achieve this, a series of events initiates a
cascading process that builds to increase the effect of the stimulus. This process can be
beneficial but is rarely used because it may become uncontrollable. A positive feedback
example is blood platelet accumulation and aggregation, which in turn causes blood clotting
in response to an injury of the blood vessels.
Negative Feedback
Negative feedback mechanisms reduce output or activity to return an organ or system to its
normal range of functioning. Regulation of blood pressure is an example of negative
feedback. Blood vessels have sensors called baroreceptors that detect if blood pressure is too
high or too low and send a signal to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus then sends a
message to the heart, blood vessels, and kidneys, which act as effectors in blood pressure
regulation. If blood pressure is too high, the heart rate decreases as the blood vessels increase
in diameter (vasodilation), while the kidneys retain less water. These changes would cause
the blood pressure to return to its normal range. The process reverses when blood pressure
decreases, causing blood vessels to constrict and the kidney to increase water retention.
Temperature control is another negative feedback mechanism. Nerve cells relay information
about body temperature to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus then signals several effectors
to return the body temperature to 37 degrees Celsius (the set point). The effectors may signal
the sweat glands to cool the skin and stimulate vasodilation so the body can give off more
heat.
If body temperature is below the set point, muscles shiver to generate heat and the
constriction of the blood vessels helps the body retain heat. This example is very complex
because the hypothalamus can change the body’s temperature set point, such as raising it
during a fever to help fight an infection. Both internal and external events can induce
negative feedback mechanisms.

Fig. Mechanisms of Homeostatic control systems

Disease as Homeostatic Imbalance
If positive and negative feedback loops are affected or altered, homeostatic imbalance and
resultant complications can occur.
What Is Disease?
Disease is any failure of normal physiological function that leads to negative symptoms.
While disease is often a result of infection or injury, most diseases involve the disruption of
normal homeostasis. Anything that prevents positive or negative feedback from working
correctly could lead to disease if the mechanisms of disruption become strong enough.
Aging is a general example of disease as a result of homeostatic imbalance. As an organism
ages, weakening of feedback loops gradually results in an unstable internal environment. This
lack of homeostasis increases the risk for illness and is responsible for the physical changes
associated with aging. Heart failure is the result of negative feedback mechanisms that
become overwhelmed, allowing destructive positive feedback mechanisms to compensate for
the failed feedback mechanisms. This leads to high blood pressure and enlargement of the
heart, which eventually becomes too stiff to pump blood effectively, resulting in heart failure.
Severe heart failure can be fatal.
Diabetes: A Disease of Failed Homeostasis
Diabetes, a metabolic disorder caused by excess blood glucose levels, is a key example of
disease caused by failed homeostasis. In ideal circumstances, homeostatic control
mechanisms should prevent this imbalance from occurring. However, in some people, the
mechanisms do not work efficiently enough or the amount of blood glucose is too great to be
effectively managed. In these cases, medical intervention is necessary to restore homeostasis
and prevent permanent organ damage.
Blood Sugar Regulation
The human body maintains constant levels of glucose throughout the day, even after fasting.
During long periods of fasting, glucose levels are reduced only very slightly. Insulin
transports glucose to the body’s cells for use in cellular metabolic function. The cells convert
excess glucose to an insoluble substance called glycogen to prevent it from interfering with
cellular metabolism. Because this ultimately lowers blood glucose levels, insulin is secreted
to prevent hyperglycaemia (high blood sugar levels). Another hormone called glucagon
performs the opposite function of insulin, causing cells to convert glycogen to glucose and
stimulating new glucose production (gluconeogenesis) to raise blood sugar levels. Negative
feedback between insulin and glucagon levels controls blood sugar homeostasis.
Causes of Homeostatic Disruption
People with type 1 diabetes do not produce insulin due to auto-immune destruction of the
insulin producing cells, while people with type 2 diabetes have chronic high blood glucose
levels that cause insulin resistance.  With diabetes, blood glucose is increased by normal
glucagon activity, but the lack of or resistance to insulin means that blood sugar levels are
unable to return to normal. This causes metabolic changes that result in diabetes symptoms
like weakened blood vessels and frequent urination. Diabetes is normally treated with insulin
injections, which replaces the missing negative feedback of normal insulin secretions.

c) Characteristics of Homeostatic Control Systems

Homeostasis refers to the ability of an organism to maintain the internal environment of the
body within limits that allow it to survive. Homeostasis also refers to self-regulating
processes that return critical systems of the body to a set point within a narrow range of
operation, consistent with survival of the organism. Homeostasis is highly developed in
warm-blooded animals living on land, which must maintain body temperature, fluid balance,
blood pH, and oxygen tension within rather narrow limits, while at the same time obtaining
nutrition to provide the energy to maintain homeostasis.
This is because maintaining homeostasis requires the expenditure of energy. Energy is used
for locomotion, as the animal seeks and consumes food and water, for maintaining body
temperature via the controlled release of calories from metabolism of food or fat stores, and
for sustaining cell membrane function as it resorbs electrolytes in the kidney and intestine and
 maintains neutral blood pH. Homeostasis also refers to the body's defensive mechanisms.
These include protective reflexes against such things as inhaling matter into the lungs, the
vomiting reflex as a protection to expel toxic materials from the oesophagus or stomach, the
eye blink reflex, and the withdrawal response to hot or otherwise painful skin sensations.
There is also the defence against pathogens through innate and acquired immunity, the latter
of which is stimulated by acute stress via cortisol and adrenalin and inhibited by chronic
stress and high levels of cortisol.
There are eight characteristics of homeostasis, based on the scientific literature which are as
follows:

a) Dynamics of a homeostatic process

b) Physiological balance
c) Control and regulation of a homeostatic process
d) Feedback mechanism
e) Environments
f) Multi-systems (complex system)
g) Dependency between events within a system or process
h) Levels of organisation

Dynamics of a homeostatic process

Homeostatic processes are characterised by the active maintenance of physiological,
chemical and physical parameters. The processes occur throughout time, all the time, and
there are bidirectional, fluctuating and correcting deviations in process rates or physiological
parameters around average values. Homeostasis is the sum of all processes maintaining the
stability of the internal environment.
Our internal environment is more or less constant. Body temperature is never constant. There
are small variations due to different bodily and environmental factors. When activity is
normal, heart rate remains quite constant, though with slight deviations up or down, because
activity level might change. Small changes that would be expressed in small changes in heart
rate.
Physiological balance
This characteristic emphasises the dynamic equilibrium in the body (or tissue, or cell) that is
sustained physiologically throughout the lifespan of an organism. Homeostasis is a steady
state, meaning that there is a dynamic equilibrium in which input and output of materials and
energy are balanced.
Homeostasis is maintaining values in an internal environment (achieved by a chain of
processes intended to balance the situation). In an ecosystem, it is not an individual’s internal
environment, but rather an external environment. It is [e.g.an ecosystem] an example of a
normal value range, but not in an internal environment, and therefore is not homeostasis.
Control and regulation of a homeostatic process
Homeostasis in complex organisms requires a mechanism that monitors changes,
accompanied by regulatory mechanisms that return the altered state to a desirable one. The
overall control of the body is integrated with the local regulation (enzymes, ions and co
factors (in any particular system and its micro-environment.

Feedback mechanism

The homeostasis mechanism relies primarily on the principle of negative or positive

feedback. Feedbacks are expressed in the effect of product concentration on a process rate.
Environments
This characteristic is the most common regarding the definition of homeostasis. Homeostasis
is the maintenance of the internal environment in a relatively stable state in the face of
changes in either the external or internal environment. Both internal and external
environmental factors act as stimuli for organisms in the maintenance of homeostasis.
Multi-systems (complex system)
Physiological and biochemical systems coordinate in harmony to ensure proper function and
maintain homeostasis. Coordinated systems operate in the entire body, in each physiological
system, and in each individual cell.
This characteristic links with the dependency between events in defining homeostasis as a
complex system. The multi-systems characteristic was examined by analysing students’
understanding of the connection between two complex, multi-systems factors – body
temperature and metabolic rate – in a homoeothermic and a poikilothermic animal.
Dependency between events within a system or process
This characteristic describes events comprising a process over time (e.g. heart rate or the pace
of walking in a healthy state). Dependency between events indicates a correlation within a
process.
Levels of Organisation

Homeostasis occurs in a variety of living organisms at all levels of biological organisation:

molecular, cellular, tissue, entire organism, and community.
i) Components of Chemical Homeostasis
Homeostasis is a four-part dynamic process that ensures ideal conditions are maintained
within living cells, in spite of constant internal and external changes. The four components of
homeostasis are a change, a receptor, a control centre and an effector. A healthy cell or
system maintains homeostasis, also commonly referred to as “being in balance.”
Change
Changes occur constantly in and around the cells of living systems. A change is anything that
requires a cell to react, such as a change in temperature, pressure or chemical composition
inside or surrounding the cell.
Receptor
Once a change occurs, it’s the receptors job to detect the change and alert the proper control
center to counteract it, returning the cell and the overall system to a balanced state --
homeostasis. For example, your blood pressure has risen after vigorous exercise. Receptors in
certain arteries will detect the pressure increase and send impulses to the body’s control
center for the cardiovascular system -- the medulla oblongata. Receptors, or nerve endings,
are located in every system and tissue.
Control Center
As the control center receives impulses from its remote receptors, it sends commands to the
effector to counteract the change in the environment. Using the same example, the medulla
oblongata commands the effector -- the heart in this case -- to slow its pulse. Control centers
are located in the brain.
Effector
The effector acts on the impulses from its specific command center, counteracting the change
and returning the internal and external cell environment to a balanced state. Effectors are the
physical change agents such as the heart, organs and fluids of the body -- the workhorses of
homeostasis.