PHYSIOLOGY OF THE

RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY
BY- LIUL M.
LIDETA COLLAGE
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Outline
• Introduction
• Mechanism of breathing
• Diffusion and gas transport (O2 and CO2)
• Regulation of breathing
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Introduction
• The goals of respiration are to provide oxygen to the
tissues and to remove carbon dioxide.
• In addition to functioning in gas exchange, the
respiratory system also participates in regulating
blood pH, contains receptors for the sense of smell,
filters inspired air, produces sounds, and rids the
body of some water and heat in exhaled air.
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Respiratory system anatomy review

• Parts of the respiratory system can be classified
according to either structure or function.
• Structurally, the respiratory system consists of two parts:
(1) The upper respiratory system includes the nose,
nasal cavity, pharynx, and associated structures.
(2) The lower respiratory system includes the larynx,
trachea, bronchi, and lungs.
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Cont…

• Functionally, the respiratory system

also consists of two parts:
▫ the conducting zone and
▫ the respiratory zone
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Cont…
(1) The conducting zone consists of a series of
interconnecting cavities and tubes both outside and
within the lungs.
• These include the nose, nasal cavity, pharynx, larynx,
trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, and terminal bronchioles;
• their function is to filter, warm, and moisten air and
conduct it into the lungs.
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Cont…
(2) The respiratory zone consists of tubes and
tissues within the lungs where gas exchange
occurs.
• These include the respiratory bronchioles, alveolar
ducts, alveolar sacs, and alveoli and are the main
sites of gas exchange between air and blood.
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General Function of the respiratory

system
A. Gas Exchange
• While air passing through the lungs, the atmospheric air
delivers O2 to the blood in the pulmonary capillaries and

in exchange takes away CO2 from the blood.

B. Phonation
• Enable speech production

• Movement of air past vocal folds makes sound & speech.

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Cont…
C. Pulmonary defense
▫ Filters inspired air/Prevent entrance of
microorganisms.
D. Acid-base balance
E. Synthesis
▫ Formation of ACE through its vascular
endothelium.
F. Smell
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Breathing
• During normal breathing, inspiration is an active
process and expiration is a passive process
• Expiration is usually passive, and normally occurs by
recoil of stretched tissue of lungs and thorax.
• High rates of ventilation or airway obstruction may
cause the muscles of expiration to actively contract.
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Cont…
• Breathing can be:

A. Abdominal Breathing
▫ Occur due to diaphragmatic movement.

▫ Downward movement of diaphragm

▫ displacement of abdominal viscera and abdominal

wall abdominal breathing.
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Cont…

B. Thoracic Breathing
▫ Occur due to movement of chest wall thoracic
breathing

• NB. The work of breathing is higher in thoracic

than in abdominal breathing.
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Cont…
• At rest, abdominal breathing accounts for 70% of the

pulmonary ventilation while thoracic breathing 30%.

• In pregnancy and ascites, the movement of the

diaphragm is limited, and breathing becomes mainly

thoracic.

• During deep breathing both abdominal and thoracic

breathing are equal in magnitude.

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Mechanism of breathing
• The process of gas exchange in the body, called
respiration, has three basic steps:
1. Pulmonary ventilation or breathing, is the
inhalation (inflow) and exhalation (outflow) of
air and involves the exchange of air between the
atmosphere and the alveoli of the lungs.
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Cont…
2. External (pulmonary) respiration is the
exchange of gases between the alveoli of the
lungs and the blood in pulmonary capillaries
across the respiratory membrane. In this
process, pulmonary capillary blood gains O2 and
loses CO2.
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Cont…
3. Internal (tissue) respiration is the exchange
of gases between blood in systemic capillaries and
tissue cells. In this step the blood loses O2 and
gains CO2. Within cells, the metabolic reactions
that consume O2 and give off CO2 during the
production of ATP are termed cellular respiration
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PULMONARY VENTILATION
• Pulmonary ventilation, or breathing, consists of
inhalation and exhalation.
• The movement of air into and out of the lungs
depends on pressure changes governed in part by
Boyle’s law, which states that the volume of a gas
varies inversely with pressure, assuming that
temperature remains constant.
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Inhalation
• Just before each inhalation, the air pressure inside the
lungs is equal to the air pressure of the atmosphere, which
at sea level is about 760 millimeters of mercury
(mmHg).
• For air to flow into the lungs, the pressure inside the alveoli
must become lower than the atmospheric pressure. This
condition is achieved by increasing the size of the lungs.
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Cont…
• Differences in pressure caused by changes in lung
volume force air into our lungs when we inhale and
out when we exhale.
• For inhalation to occur, the lungs must expand,
which increases lung volume and thus decreases the
pressure in the lungs to below atmospheric
pressure.
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Cont…
• The first step in expanding the lungs during
normal quiet inhalation involves contraction of
the main muscles of inhalation, the
diaphragm and external intercostals
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Cont…
• During normal quiet inhalation, the diaphragm
descends about 1 cm, producing a pressure difference
of 1–3 mmHg and the inhalation of about 500 mL of
air.
• In strenuous breathing, the diaphragm may descend
10 cm, which produces a pressure difference of 100
mmHg and the inhalation of 2–3 liters of air.
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Cont…
• Contraction of the diaphragm is responsible for
about 75% of the air that enters the lungs during
quiet breathing.
• Advanced pregnancy, excessive obesity, or
confining abdominal clothing can prevent
complete descent of the diaphragm.
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Cont…
• The next most important muscles of inhalation
are the external intercostals. When these
muscles contract, they elevate the ribs.
• Contraction of the external intercostals is
responsible for about 25% of the air that enters
the lungs during normal quiet breathing.
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Cont…
• During quiet inhalations, the pressure between the
two pleural layers in the pleural cavity, called
intrapleural (intrathoracic) pressure, is always
subatmospheric (lower than atmospheric pressure).
• Just before inhalation, it is about 4 mmHg less
than the atmospheric pressure, or about 756
mmHg at an atmospheric pressure of 760 mmHg
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Cont…
• As the diaphragm and external intercostals contract and the
overall size of the thoracic cavity increases, the volume of the
pleural cavity also increases, which causes intrapleural
pressure to decrease to about 754 mmHg.
• During expansion of the thorax, the parietal and visceral
pleurae normally adhere tightly because of the sub
atmospheric pressure between them and because of the
surface tension created by the moist adjoining surfaces.
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Cont…
• As the volume of the lungs increases in this way, the pressure
inside the lungs, called the alveolar (intrapulmonic) pressure,
drops from 760 to 758 mmHg.
• A pressure difference is thus established between the
atmosphere and the alveoli. Because air always flows from a
region of higher pressure to a region of lower pressure,
inhalation takes place. Air continues to flow into the lungs as
long as a pressure difference exists.
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Cont…
• During forceful inhalation, accessory muscles of
inhalation (sternocleidomastoids, scalenes, and
pectoralis minors) are also used.
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Exhalation
• Breathing out, called exhalation (expiration), is also
due to a pressure gradient, but in this case the gradient
is in the opposite direction: The pressure in the lungs is
greater than the pressure of the atmosphere.
• Normal exhalation during quiet breathing, unlike
inhalation(i.e inhalation is active process), is a passive
process because no muscular contractions are involved.
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Cont…
• Exhalation starts when the inspiratory muscles
relax. As the diaphragm relaxes, its dome moves
superiorly owing to its elasticity. As the external
intercostals relax, the ribs are depressed, which
decreases lung volume.
• In turn, the alveolar pressure increases to about
762 mmHg. Air then flows from the area of
higher pressure in the alveoli to the area of lower
pressure in the atmosphere.
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Cont…
• Exhalation becomes active only during forceful
breathing, as occurs while playing a wind
instrument or during exercise.
• Internal intercostal and abdominal muscles are
the main muscles for forceful exhalation.
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Cont…
• Air pressure differences drive airflow during
inhalation and exhalation. However, three other
factors affect the rate of airflow and the ease of
pulmonary ventilation:
▫ surface tension of the alveolar fluid,
▫ compliance of the lungs, and
▫ airway resistance.
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Surface tension
• The surface of the alveolar cells is moist, and air-
filled sacs lined with water.
• surface tension is a force generated at air–
water interface by the attractive forces between
the water molecules.
• If surface tension increases, ventilation will
decrease.
• The surface tension exerted by alveolar fluid is
decreased by the presence of surfactant.
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Surfactant
• Pulmonary surfactant is a mixture of phospholipids and
protein.
• produced by alveolar type II cells.
• Lowers surface tension.
• Reduces attractive forces of hydrogen bonding by
becoming interspersed between H20 molecules.
• As alveoli radius decreases, surfactant’s ability to lower
surface tension increases.
• Decreases Surface tension in alveoli
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Compliance
• Compliance is the ease with which the lungs and
thoracic wall can expand.
• Lung compliance is determined by the elastic
connective tissues of the lungs and the surface
tension of the fluid lining the alveoli.
• If compliance decreases, then ventilation
decreases.
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Airway resistance
• Airway resistance determines how much air
flows into the lungs at any given pressure
difference between atmosphere and alveoli. The
major determinants of airway resistance are the
radii of the airways.
• Airway resistance increases ventilation decreases
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Lung Volumes and Capacities

• Lung volumes exchanged during breathing and
the rate of respiration are measured with a
spirometer.
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Factors affecting lung volumes & capacities

• Age, sex, posture, body type, physical
training,
• pulmonary resection, tumor, pneumonia,
lung collapse, edema, fibrosis.
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Exchange of Gases in Alveoli and Tissues

• Consists of respiratory zones:
• Respiratory bronchioles,
• Alveoli,
• Alveolar duct,&
• Alveolar sac.
• Exchange of O2 for CO2 occurs through alveolo-
capillary (respiratory) membrane.
• Alveolo-capillary membrane is made of several
layers & consists of fluid film lining the alveoli
and capillary endothelial cells.
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Alveoli
Are microscopic thin-walled air sacs
within the lungs, where all gas exchange
takes place.
Provide an enormous surface area for gas
diffusion.
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Cont…
• Alveoli walls are made up of:
1. Type I Pneumocytes - Simple thin squamous
epithelium major lining cells, mainly responsible for gas
exchange.
2. Type II Pneumocytes - that are less in number and
constitute thicker granulocytes responsible for the production
of surfactants (a substance that prevents the alveoli from
collapsing by reducing the surface tension of the fluids that
line them.)
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Cont…
3. Type III Pneumocytes- large Phagocytic
macrophage cells found in alveolar cavities.
These cells keep alveolar surfaces sterile by
removing debris and microbes.
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Cont…
• Exchange of gases in lungs and tissues is by
diffusion as a result of differences in partial
pressures. Gases diffuse from a region of higher
partial pressure to one of lower partial pressure.
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Cont…
• Normal alveolar gas pressure for oxygen is 105
mmHg and for carbon dioxide is 40 mmHg.
• At any given inspired PO2 , the ratio of oxygen
consumption to alveolar ventilation determines
alveolar PO2 —the higher the ratio, the lower the
alveolar PO2 .
• The higher the ratio of carbon dioxide
production to alveolar ventilation, the higher the
alveolar PCO2 .
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Cont…
• The average value at rest for systemic venous
PO2 is 40 mmHg and for PCO2 is 46 mmHg.
• As systemic venous blood flows through the
pulmonary capillaries, there is net diffusion of
oxygen from alveoli to blood and of carbon
dioxide from blood to alveoli. By the end of each
pulmonary capillary, the blood gas pressures
have become equal to those in the alveoli.
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Cont…
• Inadequate gas exchange between alveoli and
pulmonary capillaries may occur when the
alveolar-capillary surface area is decreased,
when the alveolar walls thicken, or when there
are ventilation–perfusion inequalities.
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Diffusion of gases
O2 and CO2 are transferred across the
respiratory membrane by diffusion.
 O2 diffuses into the blood and CO2
diffuses into the alveoli.
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Cont…
The diffusion of these gases depends on
the following factors:
1. Pressure gradient
2. Solubility of gas
3. Surface area of respiratory membrane
4. Molecular weight of the gas
5. Thickness of the respiratory membrane
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Transport of Oxygen
O2 delivery to particular tissue depends
on
▫ Amount of O2 entering the lungs
▫ Adequate pulmonary blood flow
▫ Adequate gas exchange
▫ O2 carrying capacity of blood
▫ Adequate blood flow to the tissue
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Cont…
• Takes place in 3 steps
1. Diffusion of O2.
2. Transport of O2 in the blood.
3. Delivery of O2 to the tissues.
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1. Diffusion of O2
O2 is diffused from atmosphere to alveoli, because of pressure
gradient
 PO2 160 mm Hg
PCO2 0.3
= =
mm Hg

Alveoli PO2 104 mm Hg

= CO2 40
P =
mm Hg

PO2 40 mm Hg PO2 10 4mm Hg

PCO245= mm Hg
= PCO2 40
= =
mm Hg

Pulmonary
Arterial Blood capillary Venous
69 Blood
 Transport of gases
2. Transport of O2 in Blood:
1. Dissolved form – 3% in the plasma
2. Chemical form (HbO2) – 97%
 Chemical form: 97% is the main form of oxygen transport

O2 + Hb Hbo2
O2 Combines with iron part of Hb

NB!
 1 gm of Hb can carryout 1.34 ml of O2
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Transport of gases
3. Delivery of O2 to the tissues
Tissue PO2 = 40
Cells PCO2 = 45
Arterial blood Venous blood
PO2 =95mmHg PO2 = 40
PCO2 = PCO2 = 45
40mmHg
Tissue capillary
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Transport of gases
Transport of CO2
 Takes place in 3 steps
1. Diffusion of CO2
2. Transport of CO2 in blood
3. Carriage of CO2 to the lungs

1. Diffusion of CO2: some amount of Co2 is transported

from tissues to blood , because of pressure gradient.
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Transport of gases
2. Transport of CO2 in blood
a. Dissolved form

Tissue Plasma Lungs

CO2 CO2 CO2

7%
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Transport of gases

b. Carbamino form

Tissue R.B.C Lungs

Co2 Co2 + Amino group
of Hb
Carbamino Hb
23
%
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Transport of gases
C. Bicarbonate form: major transported form, 70 %
Tissue Plasma R.B.C
CO2 CO2 CO2 + H2O H2CO3
At the tissue level

HCO3- + H+
At the lung level

Alveoli

H2CO3

CO2
H2
O
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Transport of gases
3. Carriage of CO2 to the lungs:
 Because of pressure gradient CO2 is diffused from blood to
the lungs & eliminated from the lungs.
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REGULATION OF RESPIRATION
• Our body regulates respiration in different way
mainly through:
▫ Control by Nervous system and
▫ Control by concentration of
gases/humoural regulation
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Nervous system control of respiration

• The neural signals that control respiration are generated in
respiratory control regions located in the brainstem(i.e.
medulla and pons).
• The primary respiratory control center is the medullary
respiratory center.
• In addition, two other respiratory centers lie higher in the
brain stem in the pons—the pneumotaxic center and
apneustic center.
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Respiratory centers
• Respiratory center on medulla
▫ Inspiratory center
▫ Expiratory center
▫ Rhythm control center
• Respiratory center on pon
▫ Pneumotaxic center
▫ Apneustic center
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Medullary respiratory center

• Are the primary respiratory center
• initiate and maintain spontaneous respiratory
patterns.
• include electrically excitable cell populations
that induce sustained inspiration or forced
expiration.
• Include
▫ Inspiratory center
▫ Expiratory center
▫ Rhythm control center
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Respiratory control areas on medulla

• Three respiratory control site
1. The dorsal respiratory group (DRG ): is the
primarily inspiratory control area
2. The ventral respiratory group (VRG) is mainly
for control of expiration.
3. The pre-Bötzinger complex is site for
generation of respiratory rhythm
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The Pontine respiratory center

• The respiratory centers in the pons exert “fine-tuning”
influences over the medullary center to help produce
normal, smooth inspirations and expirations.
• There are 2 areas on the pons involved in the control of
respiration
▫ The pneumotaxic center

▫ The apneustic center

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The Pontine respiratory center

• Apneustic center:
▫ Promotes inspiration by stimulating the
Inspiratory neurons in the medulla.
▫ Controls gasping
• Pneumotaxic center:
▫ Antagonizes the apneustic center.
▫ Inhibits inspiration.
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Voluntary Control of Breathing

• Cerebral cortex
▫ Involved for voluntary control of breathing
▫ does not act on the respiratory center in the
brain stem but instead sends impulses directly
to the motor neurons in the spinal cord that
supply the respiratory muscles.
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Cont’d
• This voluntary control of respiration cannot be maintained

when the involuntary stimuli, such as an elevated PCO2 or

H concentration, become intense. An example is the

inability to hold your breath for very long.

• Besides the obvious forms of voluntary control, respiration

must also be controlled during such complex actions as

speaking, singing, whistling and swallowing.

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REGULATION OF RESPIRATION BY PO2,

PCO2 , AND H+ CONCENTRATION
• The arterial blood gas content in the body needs to be
regulated; meaning the level of PO2, PCO2, and in turn
the level of H+ in the arterial blood need to remain
constant.
• If any change of concentration of those gases occur, it
will be sensed by chemoreceptor which in turn stimulate
the medullary respiratory center in order to readjust.
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Chemoreceptor
• Chemoreceptors monitor partial pressures of oxygen and carbon
dioxide in arterial blood and relay this information to the
respiratory control center, so that it can adjust ventilation in
response to changes in these variables.
• Chemoreceptors involved in the control of breathing are
classified depending on their location as
▫ Peripheral Chemoreceptor or

▫ Central Chemoreceptor
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Peripheral Chemoreceptor
• Carotid bodies - located high in the neck at the
bifurcation of the common carotid arteries and are
important to monitor oxygen supply to the brain
• The carotid body input is the predominant peripheral
chemoreceptor involved in the control of respiration.
• Aortic bodies – located in the thorax on the arch of the
aorta
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Cont’d
• The peripheral chemoreceptors are composed of
specialized receptor cells stimulated
▫ Mainly by significant decreased PO2 (hypoxia)
▫ Increased H concentration (metabolic acidosis)
▫ Increased PCO2 (respiratory acidosis)
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Central Chemoreceptor
• located in the medulla oblongata
• respond to changes in the brain extracellular fluid.
• They are stimulated by increased PCO2 via associated changes
in H concentration or
• In other words they are stimulated by an increase in the H
concentration of the brain’s extracellular fluid.
• Like the peripheral chemoreceptors, provide excitatory
synaptic input to the medullary inspiratory neurons.
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Protective Reflexes
• The cough and the sneeze reflexes are responses
that protect the respiratory system from irritant
materials, which originate in sensory receptors
located between airway epithelial cells.
• The receptors for the sneeze reflex are in the nose or
pharynx; those for cough are in the larynx, trachea,
and bronchi.
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Cont’d
• When the receptors initiating a cough are stimulated, the
medullary respiratory neurons reflexively cause a deep
inspiration and a violent expiration.
• In this manner, particles and secretions are moved from
smaller to larger airways and aspiration of materials into the
lungs is also prevented.
• Alcohol inhibits the cough reflex, which may partially explain
the susceptibility of alcoholics to choking and pneumonia.
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