Gaseous Exchange in Humans 1

GASEOUS EXCHANGE IN HUMANS

Did you Know? 🤔(Oxygen Bar)

You can belly up to the bar and get your favorite… oxygen? In
some cities, you can get a shot of pure oxygen, with or without
your choice of added flavors. Bar patrons inhale oxygen
through a plastic tube inserted into their nostrils. Proponents
of the practice claim that breathing in extra oxygen will
remove toxins from the body, strengthen the immune system,
enhance concentration and alertness, increase energy, and
even cure cancer! These claims, however, have not been
substantiated by controlled scientific studies. Normally, blood
leaving the lungs is almost completely saturated with oxygen,
even without the use of extra oxygen, so it’s unlikely that a
higher concentration of oxygen in air inside the lungs would
lead to significantly greater oxygenation of the blood.

Oxygen enters the blood in the lungs as part of the process of

gas exchange.

OBJECTIVES
1. Distinguish between gaseous exchange and breathing
2. Identify characteristics common to gaseous exchange surfaces
3. Describe the process of gaseous exchange in humans

Prepared and Presented by Mrs. F. Forbes-Reid

Gaseous Exchange in Humans 2

So What is Gaseous Exchange?

Gaseous exchange is the biological process through which gases are transferred across cell
membranes to either enter or leave the blood.

Oxygen is constantly needed by cells for aerobic cellular respiration and the same process
continually produces carbon dioxide as a waste product.

Can you recall the equation for respiration?

Gaseous exchange takes place between the blood and cells throughout the body, with oxygen
leaving the blood and entering the cells and carbon dioxide leaving the cells and entering the
blood.

Gaseous exchange also takes place between the blood and the air in the lungs, with oxygen
entering the blood from the inhaled air inside the lungs, and carbon dioxide leaving the blood
and entering the air to be exhaled from the lungs.

Prepared and Presented by Mrs. F. Forbes-Reid

Gaseous Exchange in Humans 3

Can you think of gaseous exchange surfaces in living things other than that in humans?
What about plants?
The earthworm?
Fish?

Prepared and Presented by Mrs. F. Forbes-Reid

Gaseous Exchange in Humans 4

Gas Exchange in the Lungs

Alveoli are the basic functional units of the lungs where gas exchange takes place between the
air and the blood.

Alveoli (singular, alveolus) are tiny air sacs that consist of connective and epithelial tissues.
● The connective tissue includes elastic fibres that allow alveoli to stretch and expand as
they fill with air during inhalation. During exhalation, the fibres allow the alveoli to
spring back and expel the air.
● Special cells in the walls of the alveoli secrete a film of fatty substances called
surfactant. This substance prevents the alveolar walls from collapsing and sticking
together when air is expelled.
● Other cells in alveoli include macrophages, which are mobile scavengers that engulf and
destroy foreign particles that manage to reach the lungs in inhaled air.
● The alveoli contain a thin layer of moisture which is necessary for gases to dissolve so
they can diffuse.

Alveoli are arranged in groups like clusters of grapes. Each alveolus is covered with epithelium
that is just one cell thick. It is surrounded by a bed of pulmonary capillaries, each of which has a
wall of epithelium just one cell thick. As a result, gases must cross through only two cells to pass
between an alveolus and its surrounding capillaries.

Figure 1: Clusters of alveolar sacs make up most of the functional tissue of the lungs. Note that
in this and subsequent illustrations, arteries, which carry oxygenated blood, are colored red; and
veins, which carry deoxygenated blood, are colored blue.

Prepared and Presented by Mrs. F. Forbes-Reid

Gaseous Exchange in Humans 5

The pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs. Then, the blood
travels through the pulmonary capillary beds, where it picks up oxygen and releases carbon
dioxide. The oxygenated blood then leaves the lungs and travels back to the heart through
pulmonary veins. There are four pulmonary veins (two for each lung), and all four carry
oxygenated blood to the heart. From the heart, the oxygenated blood is then pumped to cells
throughout the body.

Mechanism of Gas Exchange

Gas exchange occurs by diffusion across cell membranes. Gas molecules naturally move down a
concentration gradient from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration.
This is a passive process that requires no energy. To diffuse across cell membranes, gases must
first be dissolved in a liquid. Oxygen and carbon dioxide are transported around the body
dissolved in blood. Both gases bind to the protein haemoglobin in red blood cells, although
oxygen does so more effectively than carbon dioxide. Some carbon dioxide also dissolves in
blood plasma.
As shown in Figure 2, oxygen in inhaled air diffuses into a pulmonary capillary from the
alveolus. Carbon dioxide in the blood diffuses in the opposite direction. The carbon dioxide can
then be exhaled from the body.

Figure 2: A single alveolus is a tiny structure that is specialized for gas exchange between
inhaled air and the blood in pulmonary capillaries.

Prepared and Presented by Mrs. F. Forbes-Reid

Gaseous Exchange in Humans 6

Gas exchange by diffusion depends on having a large surface area through which gases can pass.
Although each alveolus is tiny, there are hundreds of millions of them in the lungs of a healthy
adult, so the total surface area for gas exchange is huge.

Gas exchange by diffusion also depends on maintaining a steep concentration gradient for
oxygen and carbon dioxide. Continuous blood flow in the capillaries and constant breathing
maintain this gradient.
● Each time you inhale, there is a greater concentration of oxygen in the air in the alveoli
than there is in the blood in the pulmonary capillaries. As a result, oxygen diffuses from
the air inside the alveoli into the blood in the capillaries. Carbon dioxide, in contrast, is
more concentrated in the blood in the pulmonary capillaries than it is in the air inside the
alveoli. As a result, carbon dioxide diffuses in the opposite direction.
● The cells of the body have a much lower concentration of oxygen than does the
oxygenated blood that reaches them in peripheral capillaries, which are the capillaries
that supply tissues throughout the body. As a result, oxygen diffuses from the peripheral
capillaries into body cells. The opposite is true of carbon dioxide. It has a much higher
concentration in body cells than it does in the blood of the peripheral capillaries. Thus,
carbon dioxide diffuses from body cells into the peripheral capillaries.

Prepared and Presented by Mrs. F. Forbes-Reid