Professional Documents
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HOMEOSTASIS AND
EXCRETION
HOMEOSTATIS
The most important features of the internal environment that must be kept
constant are:
Example:
The Homeostatic control of glucose. The normal value of glucose in the human
blood stream is approximately 90mg per 100cm3 and even after the heaviest
carbohydrate meal rarely exceeds 150mg per 100cm3.
After entering the hepatic portal vein, it is conveyed to the liver. In the liver three
main things may happen to it.
The liver cannot perform this homeostatic function unaided. It has to receive
information instructing it what to do. This is provided by the hormone insulin
which is secreted into the blood stream by special group of cells, the islets of
langerhans in the pancreas.
On reaching the liver, insulin exerts its effect increasing the oxidative breakdown
of glucose the formation of glucose from glycogen and non-carbohydrate
sources. Insulin thus achieves the overall effect of lowering the level of glucose in
the body.
In the absence of insulin the reverse takes place, oxidative breakdown of glucose
is inhibited, and additional glucose is formed from storage compounds.
As a result the glucose level raises an effect which is enhanced by another
hormone from the islets of langerhans called glucagon.
Clearly insulin plays a vital role in the regulation of glucose without it the liver
cannot respond appropriately to the needs of the body. This can be illustrated
considering what happens if the pancreas is surgically removed from an animal.
The result is a drastic increase in general level of the glucose in the blood,
accompanied by a decrease in the glycogen content of the liver and muscles
content.
Certain individuals have islets of langerhans which for one reason or another are
unable to produce as much insulin as they should. The result is a condition
known as diabetes mellitus, the symptoms of which are similar to those seen in
an animal deprived of its pancreas. There is an increase in the blood glucose
level condition known as (hyperglycaemia), and glucose appears in the urine
(glycosuria). If untreated the condition is fatal. Diabetes can be controlled by
regular injections of insulin. Unfortunately the hormone cannot be taken by mouth
as it is a protein and is digested in the alimentary canal, though mild cases can
be controlled by means of other chemical agents taken orally.
It is amount of glucose in the blood itself which is the effective agent for the
control of secretion of insulin. If the blood glucose level is abnormally high, this
stimulates the islets cells to produce correspondingly more insulin. On other hand
if the glucose level is low, less insulin is secreted. In other words the glucose
itself switches on the mechanism by which it is itself regulated, an excess of
glucose setting into motion the physiological processes which return the glucose
level to its normal value.
Reception/Detectors
Signals the extent of any deviation from the reference point and are capable of
detecting the change.
Controller/control mechanism
Capable of initiating the appropriate corrective measures/coordinates the
information from various detectors and sends out instructions which will correct
the deviation.
Effectors
Bring about a response to a certain change.
Feedback loop
Change in the system as a result of action by the effectors
The below figure illustrates the rate of negative feedback in the control of thyroxin
release by the thyroid gland.
Conduction – Transfer of heat from the body to the nearest surrounding things
which are in contact OR transfer of energy in form of heat in solids by vibration of
its particles.
Convection-is the movement of air resulting from local currents of warm air
being adjacent to each other replaced by cooler air and vice versa. These air
movements speed up loss of heat by radiation and evaporation.
Or
1. Vasodilation
Blood in the network of capillaries in the skin may take three alternative
routes. It can pass through capillaries close to the skin surface, through
others deeper in the dermis or it may pass beneath the layer of
subcutaneous fat.
Many of the capillaries form loops and have shunts which enable the body
to vary the amount of blood flowing through them.
The hypothalamus detects the change in blood temperature
(thermoregulatory centre) and send nerve impulses to the vasomotor
centre in the medulla oblongata of the hind brain
The vasomotor control of superficial arterioles causes them to dilate
encouraging blood flow through the capillary beds. The shunt veins and
connecting veins are constricted. Therefore more blood flows closer to the
skin surface and heat from this blood is lost through the epidermis by
conduction, convection and radiation.
2. Evaporative cooling through sweating
Sweat consists mainly of: water, mineral salts and urea. It is less
concentrated than blood plasma and is secreted from tissue fluid by
activity of the sweat glands i.e. the sweat gland cells absorb fluid (water,
dissolved mineral salts and urea) from the surrounding capillaries and
secrete it into sweat ducts which lead to the surface of the skin
When sweat evaporates from the skin, energy (heat) is lost from the body
as latent heat of evaporation and this reduces body temperature.
Being furless humans have sweat glands over the whole body, making
them efficient at cooling by this means, animals with fur generally have
sweat glands confined to areas of the skin where fur is absent e.g. pads of
the feet of dogs and cats and ears of rats (sweating beneath a covering of
thick fur is in efficient as the fur prevents air movements which would
otherwise evaporate the sweat)
NB: the evaporation of each gram of water requires 2.5 KJ of energy.
3. Flattening of hair/fur
Licking while not as effective as sweating may help cool the body. It has
been reported in Kangaroos, cats and rabbits. Licking cools the body as
heat from the body is required to evaporate the wet fur.
5. Increase in metabolic rate
The metabolic rate decreases in order to decrease heat production. The
metabolic rate is controlled by the hormone thyroxine by negative feedback
mechanisms involving the hypothalamus and anterior pituitary.
1. Vasoconstriction
The hypothalamus detects the change in blood temperature and sends nerve
impulses to the vasomotor centre in the medulla oblongata of the hind brain –
bulb of Krause.
The shunt vein and connecting vein are dilated and therefore less blood flows
close to the skin surface and hence less heat is lost through the epidermis by
conduction, convection and radiation.
2. Shivering
When the body’s temperatures fall below the core, the skeletal muscles of the
body may undergo rhythmic; involuntary contracting which produce metabolic
heat. This shivering may be proceeded by asynchronous twitching of groups of
muscles.
At low environmental temperatures the hair erector muscles contract and the
elasticity the skin causes a pull in the hair.
The hair becomes erect; goose bumps/pimples develop due to skin being pushed
up by hair and so increase the thickness of the layer of air trapped. Therefore
less heat is lost from the body.
(Adrenal produce cortisol and adrenaline, thyroid produce thyroxine and pituitary
produce somatotrophin).
This requires increased consumption of food; arctic animals consume more food
per gram of body weight than their tropical relatives. Rats kept at 30C take in 50%
more food than those at 200C.
EXCRETION
OR
Excretion is the removal from the body of the waste products of metabolism.
Carbon dioxide
Source ;( from carbohydrate metabolism and is produced during respiration in
the Krebs cycle) when and alpha – ketoglutarate changes to succinate. CO2 is
formed in the body tissues. It diffuses out of the body through gaseous exchange
surface e.g. Lungs in man, gills in fish and trachea in arthropods.
The concentration gradient will make the CO2 move out of the body through the
lungs, alveoli, alveoli duct, trachea and the nose.
Bile pigment.
Source; from the breakdown of haemoglobin in the liver spleen or bone marrow.
Excreted by the liver in bile and eliminated with faces.
Nitrogenous waste.
Source: from the breakdown of amino acids.
Ammonia (gas)
Its nature is highly toxic and highly soluble in water. Thus must be
removed from the body quickly i.e. must not be allowed to accumulate in
the tissue
It diffuses quickly from the body where there is plenty of water.
Oesteichythes, marine invertebrates and all fresh water animal can afford
to excrete it unchanged
The animals excreting ammonia are referred to as ammoniotelic.
Urea
Made from the molecule of CO2 and 2 molecules of NH3.It’s soluble and
relatively non toxic and harmless(less harmful) in moderate concentrations.
Thus animals can retain it for some time in their bodies before being
excreted.
Mammals can afford to lose some amount of water because they can
replace it’s by drinking, thus every time urea is excreted some water is lost
since urea is highly soluble in water thus mammals always drink water.
Formed in the liver through cyclical reactions referred to as ornithine cycle.
Marine and cartilegenous fish and animals excrete urea and TMO and are
known as ureoteric.
Role of river in protein metabolism
Formation of urea
Transamination
Production of plasma protein.
Formation of urea.
The molecule of NH3 from deamination and CO2 enter the cycle and react
with ornithine to form H2O and citruline.
Another molecule of NH3 is fed into the cycle to read with citruline forming
water and arginine.
Reaction of arginine with water forms ornithine and urea and it is catalyzed
by arginase enzyme.
THE ORNITHINE CYCLE
They are deaminated to urea, uric acid or ammonia if not they are transaminated.
KIDNEY
Found towards the back of the lower part of the abdominal cavity.
Held in position by a thin layer of tissue called the peritoneum and are
usually surrounded by fat.
Each kidney is supplied with blood from the renal artery and drained by a
renal vein. The urine which is produced by the kidney is removed by a
ureter for temporary storage in the urinary bladder
Within each kidney there are a number of clearly defined regions
The outer region is cortex. It mainly comprises of collagen fibre, fibrous
connective tissues, glomeruli, bowman’s capsules and convoluted tubules
with their associated blood supply.
Medulla contains blood vessels, loop of henle and collecting duct. These
structures are in group known as renal pyramids.
Pelvis is almost empty with only colleting ducts empting there.
The whole kidney is nephron. Each kidney has 1 million nephrons; each of
3cm. Total length of tubules is 120 km.
General functions of the kidney
The afferent arteriole is thick which later on breaks down to small blood
capillaries.
The endothelial cells contain pores so that materials can leak
The inner layer of the Bowman’s capsule is made up of special cells called
podocyte cells which have many infoldings to allow materials to enter the
Bowman’s capsule.
The capillaries have a single layer of endothelial cells which are perforated
to allow easy diffusion.
The arterioles break into capillaries which are one cell thick.
They are special podocyte cells to increase surface area for filtration and
have got filtration slits.
The endothelial cells press against basement membrane to allow rapid
diffusion.
Afferent arteriole has larger diameter than the efferent arteriole, this sets
up high pressure in the glomerulus and the whole kidney.
On the outside of the capsule they have got squamous epithelium for easy
passage of glomeruli filtrate into the tubule.
Cuboid epithelium line the proximal and distal convoluted tubule and collecting
ducts.
The ultra filtration process.
RENAL CORPUSCLE.
Low blood volume results from loss of Na+ ions because less water enters the
blood by osmosis and this leads to decrease in blood pressure.
Aldosterone also stimulates Na+ absorption in the gut decreases loss Na+ through
the sweat.
Effect: more water enters the blood by osmosis the blood volume and blood
pressure rises.
Regulation:
Maintenance of the solute potential of blood (water and salts) at steady state by
balancing water up take from the water lost in evaporation, sweating, egesting
urine.
Are hypertonic to the environment. There is continuous flooding water into their
bodies due to the osmosis gradient.
Aching of salt out of their bodies through the highly permeable gills to the
surroundings.
Adaptations
They have large and many glomeruli thus producing large volume of
glomerular filtrate.
Salts are selectively reabsorbed into the capillaries surrounding the tubule and
hence produce large volume of dilute (cupious) urine
Their gills have got specialized NaCl cells which actively uptake salts from
the water passing through them.
Some salts are replaced by absorption of food they take.
They do not drinking water.
Osmoregulation in marine cartilagenous fish.
They synthesize and retain urea within their tissue and body fluids together
with TMO (trimethly amine oxide).
The above makes their bodies concentration higher than their environment so
take in water by osmosis through their gills.
The kidney has long tubules for selective reabsorption of urea and not for
the elimination of salts.
Not salts because if salts are absorbed then water will follow by osmosis making
blood dilute and loss of H2O to the surrounding as the surrounding is more
concentrated than the blood.
Excess NaCl ions are removed from the body fluids by active secretion into
the rectum by the cells of the rectal gland and through the faces they are
out.
The gills are impermeable to nitrogenous waste and thus their removal is
controlled by the kidneys.
If the gills were permeable to urea then the concentration of the urea in blood
would be low and thus blood would lose water to surrounding as we know that
urea has to be retained in the body.