Circulation and

the heart
 Biology and Society: Avoiding “The Wall”

• What does it take to be an elite endurance athlete?

• World-class champions have world-class
circulatory and respiratory systems.

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Figure 23.0-2

Chapter Thread: Athletic Endurance

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• Every organism must exchange materials with its

environment, relying upon
• diffusion, the spontaneous movement of molecules
from an area of higher concentration to an area of
lower concentration, and
• a circulatory system, which facilitates the
exchange of materials, providing a rapid, long-
distance internal transport system that brings
resources close enough to cells for diffusion to
occur.

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• All but the simplest animals have a circulatory

system with three main components:
1. a central pump,
2. a vascular system (a set of tubes), and
3. a circulating fluid.

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• In an open circulatory system,

• the circulating fluid is pumped through open-ended
tubes and
• flows out among cells.

• Open circulatory systems are found in many

invertebrates, including most molluscs and all
arthropods.

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 CIRCULATORY SYSTEM DIVERSITY
Open circulatory system Closed circulatory system

Vessels Single circulation system Double circulation system

Blood
Heart Interstitial fluid Pulmonary Systemic
circuit circuit
Capillaries Heart
Circulating
Heart
(interstitial) fluid Gills Body Lungs Body

Molluscs, arthropods Fish, rays, sharks Amphibians, reptiles, mammals

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• The closed circulatory system of humans and other

vertebrates is called a cardiovascular system,
and it consists of the
• heart,
• blood, and
• blood vessels.

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• Blood circulates to and from the heart through

three types of vessels.
1. Arteries carry blood away from the heart,
branching into smaller arterioles as they
approach organs.
2. Capillaries, with thin walls, allow exchange
between blood and interstitial fluid.
3. Venules collect blood from the capillaries and
converge to form veins, which return
blood back
to the heart, completing the circuit.

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• Two distinct cardiovascular, or closed circulatory

systems, exist in vertebrates.
1. In the single circulation system, found in bony
fishes, rays, and sharks, blood flows only once
through the heart by way of a single loop, or
circuit.

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

2. In the double circulation system, found in

amphibians, reptiles (including birds), and
mammals, blood flows twice through the heart,
• once between the lungs and the heart in the
pulmonary circuit and
• a second time between the heart and the rest of the
body in the systemic circuit.

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 Blood Vessels

• All blood vessels are lined by a thin layer of tightly

packed epithelial cells.
• Structural differences in the walls of the different
kinds of blood vessels correlate with their different
functions.

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From heart To heart
Epithelium Valve
Epithelium
Epithelium

Smooth
Smooth
muscle
muscle
Connective
tissue
Connective
Artery tissue Vein

Arteriole Venule

Capillary
 Blood Flow through Capillary Beds

• The most important function of the circulatory

system is the chemical exchange between the
blood and tissue cells within capillary beds.
• The walls of capillaries are thin and leaky.
• Consequently, as blood enters a capillary at the
arterial end, blood pressure pushes fluid rich in O 2,
nutrients, and other molecules out of the capillary
and into the interstitial fluid.

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Figure 23.8

Tissue cell

Capillary
Red blood cell Diffusion of
Diffusion of O2
CO2 and
Fro and nutrients
wastes out
m out of capillary
art of tissue
ery and into
cells and
tissue cells
into capillary

Interstitial To vein
fluid

To
ve
LM

in
(a) Capillaries (b) Chemical exchange
 Blood Flow through Capillary Beds

• Blood flows continuously through capillaries in your

most vital organs, such as the brain, heart, kidneys,
and liver.
• In many other sites, the blood supply varies as
blood is diverted from one part of the body to
another, depending on need.

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 Blood Return through Veins

• After molecules are exchanged between the blood

and body cells, blood flows
• from the capillaries into small venules,
• then into larger veins, and
• finally to the inferior and superior venae cavae, the
two large blood vessels that flow into the heart.

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 Blood Return through Veins

• By the time blood enters the veins, the pressure

originating from the heart has dropped to near zero.
• The blood still moves through veins, even against
the force of gravity, because veins are sandwiched
between skeletal muscles.
• As these muscles contract (when you walk, for
example), they squeeze the blood along.

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Figure 23.9
To heart

Valve (open)

Skeletal muscle

Valve (closed)
 Blood Return through Veins

• After a while without contracting muscles, a person

will start to become weak and dizzy and could even
faint because gravity prevents blood from returning
to the heart in sufficient amounts to supply the
brain with oxygen.
• Over time, leg veins may stretch and enlarge and
the valves within them weaken. As a result, veins
just under the skin can become visibly swollen, a
condition called varicose veins.

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 How the Heart Works

• The human heart

• is a muscular organ about the size of a fist,
• is located under the breastbone, and
• has four chambers that
• support double circulation and
• prevent oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood of each
circuit from mixing.

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Figure 23.4
To body
O2-rich blood
O2-poor blood From
body

Right Left
lung lung

Right atrium Left atrium

Valves Valves

Right Left
ventricle ventricle
From body
 The Path of Blood

• Essential to the human cardiovascular system is

the four-chambered heart.
• The heart always receives blood in a chamber
called the atrium (plural, atria), and blood is always
pumped away from the heart from a chamber called
the ventricle.
• Both sides of the heart have one atrium and one
ventricle.

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 The Path of Blood

• The pulmonary and systemic circuits operate

simultaneously.
• The two ventricles pump almost in unison, sending
some blood through the pulmonary circuit and the
rest through the systemic circuit.

• Figure 23.3 traces the path of blood as it makes

one complete trip around the body.

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• The pulmonary circuit carries blood between the

heart and lungs.
• In the lungs, CO2 diffuses from the blood into the
lungs, while O2 diffuses from the lungs into the
blood.
• The pulmonary circuit then returns this O2-rich blood
back to the heart.

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Figure 23.2-1

CO2 CO2

Lung Lung

O2 O2

Heart

O2-rich blood
O2-poor blood

(a) Pulmonary circuit

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• The systemic circuit carries blood between the

heart and the rest of the body.
• The blood supplies O2 to body tissues while it picks
up CO2.
• The oxygen-poor blood returns to the heart via the
systemic circuit.

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Figure 23.2-2
CO2
O2

O2 O2-rich blood
O2-poor blood
CO2

(b) Systemic circuit

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 Unifying Concepts of Animal Circulation

• Obstruction of the cardiovascular system is

dangerous and sometimes deadly.
• If a blood clot becomes lodged in a vessel of a lung,
it can cause shortness of breath and lung tissue
damage.
• If the clot is large enough, it may completely
obstruct blood flow through the pulmonary circuit
and cause sudden death as the heart and brain lose
access to O2-rich blood.

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 Blood

• The circulatory system of an adult human has

about 5 L of blood.
• Just over half this volume consists of a yellowish
liquid called plasma, consisting of water and
dissolved salts, proteins, and various other
molecules, such as nutrients, wastes, and
hormones.

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 Blood

• Suspended within the plasma are three types of

cellular elements:
1. red blood cells,
2. white blood cells, and
3. platelets.

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Figure 23.10

55% Plasma: water and

Blood dissolved substances
is spun.
White blood cells

Platelets

45%
Red blood cells
 Structure/Function: Red Blood Cells

• Red blood cells, also called erythrocytes, are by

far the most numerous type of blood cell.
• Each red blood cell contains approximately 250
million molecules of hemoglobin, an iron-containing
protein that transports oxygen.
• As red blood cells pass through the capillary beds of
your lungs, oxygen diffuses into them and binds to
the hemoglobin.

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 Structure/Function: Red Blood Cells

• This process is reversed in the capillaries of the

systemic circuit, where the hemoglobin unloads its
cargo of oxygen to the body’s cells.
• Human red blood cells
• are shaped like disks with indentations in the middle,
increasing the surface area available for gas
exchange, and
• lack nuclei and other organelles, leaving more room
to carry hemoglobin.

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 Structure/Function: Red Blood Cells

• Anemia is a condition in which there is an

abnormally low amount of hemoglobin or a low
number of red blood cells.
• The kidneys produce a hormone called
erythropoietin (EPO) that stimulates the bone
marrow’s production of oxygen-carrying red blood
cells.

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 Blood Doping

• Athletes sometimes abuse synthetic EPO to

enhance their blood oxygen level, a practice
referred to as blood doping.
• Blood doping is difficult to detect because EPO is a
hormone produced naturally by the body and
because synthetic EPO is rapidly cleared from the
bloodstream.

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 White Blood Cells and Defense

• White blood cells (leukocytes)

• contain nuclei and other organelles,
• are larger and lack hemoglobin,
• are less abundant than red blood cells, but
• temporarily increase in number when the body is
combating an infection.

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 CELLULAR COMPONENTS OF BLOOD
Red Blood Cells White Blood Cells Platelets
(cells that carry oxygen) (cells that fight infection) (bits of membrane-enclosed
cytoplasm that aid clotting)

Colorized SEM
Fibrin

Colorized SEM
Colorized SEM

Colorized SEM
Red blood cell
 Platelets and Blood Clotting

• Blood contains two components that help form

clots: platelets and fibrinogen.
1. Platelets are bits of membrane pinched off from
larger cells in the bone marrow.
2. Platelets also release clotting factors, molecules
that convert fibrinogen, a protein found in
the
plasma, to a threadlike protein called
fibrin.
Molecules of fibrin form a dense network
to
create a patch.

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 Platelets and Blood Clotting

• Too much or too little clotting can be life-

threatening.
• An embolus is a blood clot that forms within a blood
vessel and then dislodges from that point of origin
and travels elsewhere in the body via the blood.
• An embolus that blocks blood flow to the heart may
cause a heart attack, and an embolus in the brain
may cause a stroke.
• The inability to form clots is also dangerous. In the
disease hemophilia, a genetic mutation in a gene for
a clotting factor results in excessive, sometimes
fatal, bleeding.

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 Platelets and Blood Clotting

• In the inherited disease hemophilia, excessive and

sometimes fatal bleeding can occur from even
minor cuts and bruises.
• Hemophilia is caused by a genetic mutation in one
of several genes that code for clotting factors.

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Figure 23.3-s11
9 Capillaries of
Superior head, chest,
vena cava and arms

Pulmonary Pulmonary
artery artery
10 Aorta
Capillaries Capillaries
of right lung 3 8 of left lung
3

4 4
5 6
1 5

Pulmonary vein 7 Pulmonary vein

2
Right atrium 11 Left atrium
Right ventricle Left ventricle
Inferior
vena cava

O2-rich blood Capillaries of

abdominal region
O2-poor blood 9 and legs
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 The Cardiac Cycle

• The cardiac muscles of the heart relax and contract

rhythmically in what is called the cardiac cycle.
• One heart beat makes up a complete circuit of the
cardiac cycle.
• In a healthy adult at rest, the number of beats per
minute, or heart rate, ranges between 60 and 100.
• You can measure your heart rate by taking your
pulse, which is the stretching of arteries with each
heartbeat.

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 The Cardiac Cycle

• The relaxation phase of the heart cycle is known as

diastole; the contraction phase is called systole.
• As it beats, the heart makes a distinctive “lubb-
dupp, lubb-dupp” sound.
• Valves prevent backflow and keep blood moving in
the right direction.
• A heart murmur indicates a defect in one or more of
the valves.

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 2 Atria contract.
Blood is forced into ventricles.

1 Heart is relaxed.
Blood flows in.

0.1
sec

0.3
0.8 sec sec
DIASTOLE 0.4 SYSTOLE
sec

3 Ventricles contract.
Blood is pumped out.
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 The Pacemaker and the Control of Heart Rate

• The pacemaker, or SA (sinoatrial) node, is made

up of specialized muscle tissue in the wall of the
right atrium that generates electrical impulses,
which spread quickly through the walls of both
atria, prompting the atria to contract at the same
time.

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Figure 23.6-1

1 Left atrium
Electrical
impulses
Right 2
atrium

Right Left
ventricle ventricle

(a) The heart’s natural pacemaker

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 The Pacemaker and the Control of Heart Rate

• The impulses then pass to a relay point that delays

the signals by about 0.1 second, allowing the atria
to empty before the impulses are passed to the
ventricles.
• Impulses cause the ventricles to contract strongly,
driving the blood out of the heart.
• The heart’s pacemaker directs muscles of the heart
to beat faster or slower under the influence of a
variety of signals.

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 The Pacemaker and the Control of Heart Rate

• Sometimes the heart’s pacemaker fails to

coordinate the electrical impulses, and the muscles
of the heart contract out of sync, producing an
erratic heart rhythm.
• If a heart continually fails to maintain a normal
rhythm, an artificial pacemaker that emits rhythmic
electrical signals can be surgically implanted into
cardiac muscle to maintain a normal heartbeat.

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Figure 23.6-2

Wire leading to Heart Artificial

heart pacemaker pacemaker

(b) Artificial pacemaker

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 Blood Flow through Arteries

• Blood pressure is the force that blood exerts

against the walls of your arteries.
• Blood pressure pushes blood from the heart through
the arteries, arterioles, and capillary beds.
• Blood pressure is recorded as two numbers, such
as 120/80 (“120 over 80”).
• The first number is blood pressure during systole,
when the ventricles contract.
• The second number is the blood pressure that
remains in the arteries during diastole, when the
elastic walls of the arteries snap back.

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 Blood Flow through Arteries

• Optimal blood pressure for adults is

• below 120 systolic and
• below 80 diastolic.

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 Blood Flow through Arteries

• High blood pressure, or hypertension, is

persistent systolic blood pressure higher than 140
and/or diastolic blood pressure higher than 90.
• Hypertension is sometimes called a “silent killer”
because it often displays no outward symptoms for
years while increasing the risks of heart disease, a
heart attack, or a stroke.

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 Cardiovascular Disease

• Chronic disease of the coronary and other arteries

throughout the body is called atherosclerosis, in
which plaque develops in the inner walls of
arteries.
• When a coronary artery becomes partially blocked
by plaque, a person may feel occasional chest pain,
a condition called angina.
• If the coronary artery becomes fully blocked, heart
muscle cells quickly die.

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Figure 23.14

Passageway Partially blocked

for blood passageway

Plaque

Normal artery Artery partially blocked by plaque

 Cardiovascular Disease

• Approximately one-third of heart attack victims die

almost immediately.
• For those who survive, the ability of the damaged
heart to pump blood may be seriously impaired for
life because heart muscle cannot be replaced or
repaired.
• Certain drugs can lower the risk of developing clots.
• Angioplasty is the insertion of a tiny catheter with a
balloon that is inflated to compress the plaque and
widen clogged arteries.

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Figure 23.15
Angioplasty with stent insertion
Balloon inside stent Balloon expanded Stent

Catheter

Artery
Plaque
causing
blockage

Bypass
Vein

Blood
flow
Plaque
causing
blockage
 Cardiovascular Disease

• A stent, a small wire mesh tube that props open an

artery, is often inserted during the angioplasty
process.
• Bypass surgery is a much more drastic remedy. In
this procedure, a vein is removed from a patient’s
leg and is sewn onto the heart—shunting blood
around the clogged artery.

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