Human respiratory system

Dr Melissa Cameron
School of Medical Sciences
melissa.cameron@sydney.edu.au

https://images.app.goo.gl/jCV56admuLpKqaWh9
 What’s to come 
• Breathe in breathe out. How often do you remember to breathe? Rarely? Always – Take a little
breath and hold, then take another, This is how it feels to have lung disease – never the capacity to
breathe out.

• In our life time we take around 600 million breaths. If we could lay out the 750
million little tubes that make up our lungs, they would take up the size of a tennis
court.

• We will learn about the mechanics of breathing and gas exchange, focussing on the movement of
oxygen from the environment into our lungs and then into the circulatory system for dispersal to our
tissues.

• We will consider how lung anatomy allows the movement of gases across the respiratory
membranes, and how our anatomy changes when we laugh, cry, yawn and hiccup.

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Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
 The Respiratory System

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 The Respiratory System

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 Gas Exchange
• AKA respiration
– Uptake of O2 from the atmosphere and discharge of CO2 back into the environment

• A particular gas within a mixture of gases exerts a pressure

– Partial pressure

• Knowing the partial pressure of a gas allows us to predict its movement

– Gases always diffuse from a region of high partial pressure to a low partial pressure

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Consider the responses you see your body and those around you make

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 What happens when we take a deep breath?

• Air rushes in through the nose/mouth

• The chest expands

• The abdomen expands slightly

• Shoulders may lift up

Why do these things occur when we breathe?

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 Negative pressure breathing
• To move O2 from the atmosphere into our lungs, the pressure must be lower in the lungs
– Pulling, rather than pushing air into our lungs

• Achieved by expansion of the chest wall by muscle contraction

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 Why do our lungs expand when our chest contracts?

• A double membrane surrounds the lungs

– One side adheres to the outside of the lung, the other to the wall of the thoracic cavity
(ribs)
– Filled with fluid that creates surface tension
Easily stuck, but not easily pulled apart

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 Breathing out - Expiration
• Compared to inspiration, normal expiration usually does not require the
contraction of any muscles
– Passive process
– Relaxation of diaphragm and rib cage reduces the volume of the thoracic cavity
driving air OUT of the lungs

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 We can alter the volume within our lungs

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 Lung volumes and capacities

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 Gas exchange at the alveoli
• Human lungs contain millions of alveoli, creating a huge surface area
– This allows O2 to rapidly diffuse across the membrane into the surrounding capillaries
for dispersal around the body

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 Remember – gas moves from an area of
high partial pressure to low partial
pressure

Let’s annotate 

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 Gas transport in the blood
• Oxygen is predominantly transported around the body bound to
haemoglobin within red blood cells
– 98% transported this way
– Remaining 2% dissolved in the plasma

• Carbon dioxide is transported by 3 different mechanisms

– 7% dissolved in plasma
– Remaining 93% within red blood cells, but via two separate mechanisms
23% bound to haemoglobin
70% converted to bicarbonate

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 Oxygen transport by haemoglobin
• Each haemoglobin molecule can carry 4 molecules of O2

• Depending on how much O2 is bound will determine the blood’s saturation

– If all binding sites are occupied, the blood is 100% saturated

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

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 Oxyhaemoglobin saturation curves
– At normal PO2 levels, haemoglobin is 98% saturated!
– Minor changes in PO2 do not have a significant effect on the saturation

– Haemoglobin is a large store for O2 within the body

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 What happens when things go wrong?
• If diffusion of gases between the alveoli and blood is impaired or oxygen transport in the
blood is altered this can result in hypoxia
– Often goes hand in hand (but not always!) with hypercapnia

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What happens when things go wrong?
• Two general categories of dysfunction:
– Obstructive lung disease
– Restrictive lung disease

• Additional conditions affecting respiratory function

https://images.app.goo.gl/TQrLffNjHHtFsz1MA
– Diseases affecting diffusion of O2 and CO2 across pulmonary membranes
– Reduced ventilation due to mechanical failure
– Failure of adequate pulmonary blood flow
– Ventilation/perfusion abnormalities involving a poor matching of air and blood so
that efficient gas exchange does not occur

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 Pneumothorax
AKA: Collapsed lung
Why does a lung collapse?

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 Involuntary Responses
Sneezing
• Receptors in nose send signal to brain to close off mouth
• Forces air out of lungs through nose to expel irritants

Coughing
• Receptors in respiratory tract send signal to brain to close off glottis and vocal
cords
• Builds pressure in lungs where it is then forced out when muscles contract

Hiccups
• Trigger leads to involuntary contraction of the diaphragm
• This closes off vocal cords briefly, causing air to “bounce” off them, creating the
‘hic’ sound
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 • Log in to Socrative
https://b.socrative.com/login/student/
• Enter room 8A8TL1XV for some revision
questions

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