5/2/2012

Bio 321
Tobi Limke, Ph.D.

BIO207 Online

Bio 321

Chapter 1: Homeostasis

Homeostasis
Most of the common physiological variables
of the body are maintained within a
predictable range.
Examples of such physiological variables:
Blood pressure
Body temperature
Blood glucose levels

5/2/2012

Set points
Every system has its set point.
This is the ideal range that is considered normal.
It is often observed in cases of chronic diseases that the
set point of the system has been reset to another level.
(exblood pressure and baroreceptors).
This means that you now have to fight the bodys natural
mechanisms to maintain a lower levels of blood
pressure..this is one reason that once you start on
hypertensive medications you often have to stay on them.

System Controls
Feedback loops or systems are a common
mechanism to control physiological processes.
A positive feedback system (also called a feed
forward) enhances the production of the
product.
A negative feedback system shuts the system
off once the set point has been reached.

Figure 1-6
Negative
Feedback

5/2/2012

Figure 1.01

What surrounds the cells?

The immediate environment that surrounds each individual cell in the body is
the extracellular fluid and extracellular matrix (ECM).
ECM consists of a mixture of proteins, polysaccharides and, in some cases,
minerals.
The matrix serves two general functions: (1) It provides a scaffold for cellular
attachments, and (2) it transmits information, in the form of chemical
messengers, to the cells to help regulate their activity, migration, growth, and
differentiation.
The proteins of the extracellular matrix consist of fibersropelike collagen
fibers and rubberband-like elastin fibersand a mixture of nonfibrous
proteins that contain carbohydrate.

Organs and Organ Systems

Organs are composed of multiple tissue
types (example: blood vessels have layers
of smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells
and fibroblasts).
Organ systems contain multiple organs that
work together (example: the urinary system
has the kidney, ureters, urethra, bladder).

5/2/2012

Body Fluids and Compartments

The term body fluids, is used to refer to the watery solution of
dissolved substances (oxygen,nutrients ect) present in the body.
The fluid in the blood and surrounding cells is called extracellular
fluid (ie outside the cell).
About 2025 percent is in the fluid portion of blood (plasma) and
the remaining 7580 percent of the extracellular fluid lies around
and between cells and is known as the interstitial fluid.
The space containing interstitial fluid is called the interstitium.
Therefore, the total volume of extracellular fluid is the sum of
the plasma and interstitial volumes.

Body Fluids and Compartments

Intracellular fluid is the fluid located inside the cells.
The composition of the extracellular fluid is very different from
that of the intracellular fluid.
Maintaining differences in fluid composition across the cell
membrane is an important way in which cells regulate their own
activity.

5/2/2012

Figure 1-3

ICF

ISF

plasma

organs

internal environment

external
environment

Homeostasis
Homeostasis is a dynamic, not a static, process.
Physiological variables can change dramatically
over a 24 hr period but the system is still in
overall balance.
When homeostasis is maintained, we refer to
physiology; when it is not, we refer to
pathophysiology.

Reflexes
A reflex is a specific involuntary,
unpremeditated, unlearned built-in response
to a particular stimulus.
Example: pulling your hand away from a hot
object or shutting your eyes as an object
rapidly approaches your face.

5/2/2012

Reflexes
The pathway mediating a reflex is known as the reflex arc.
An arc has several components: stimulus, receptor, afferent
(incoming) pathway, integration center, efferent (out going) pathway
and effector.
A stimulus is defined as a detectable change in the internal or
external environment. A receptor detects the change. The pathway
the signal travels between the receptor and the integrating center is
known as the afferent pathway. The pathway along which
information travels away from the integration center to the effector is
known as the efferent pathway
An integrating center often receives signals from many receptors,
some of which may respond to quite different types of stimuli. Thus,
the output of an integrating center reflects the net effect of the total
afferent input; that is, it represents an integration of numerous bits of
information.

Non-nerve reflexes
Almost all body cells can act as effectors in homeostatic
reflexes.
There are, however, two specialized classes of tissuesmuscle
and glandthat are the major effectors of biological control
systems.
In the case of glands the effector may be a hormone secreted
into the blood.
A hormone is a type of chemical messenger secreted into the
blood by cells of the endocrine system (see Table 11).
Hormones may act on many different cells simultaneously
because they circulate throughout the body.

Types of Signals
Hormones are produced in and secreted
from endocrine glands or in scattered cells
that are distributed throughout another
organ.
Neurotransmitters are chemical
messengers that are released from the
endings of neurons onto other neurons,
muscle cells, or gland cells.

5/2/2012

Chemical Messengers
Chemical messengers participate not only in reflexes, but
also in local responses
Communication signals in three categories:
Endocrine: signal reaches often-distant targets after
transport in blood.
Paracrine: signal reaches neighboring cells via the ISF.
Autocrine: signal affects the cell that synthesized the
signal.

Point to remember
A neuron, endocrine gland cell, and other cell
types may all secrete the same chemical
messenger.
In some cases, a particular messenger may
function as a neurotransmitter, as a hormone, or
as a paracrine/autocrine substance.
Example: Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter in
the brain and also produced as a hormone by cells
of the adrenal glands.

Other types of Cell Communication

There are two important types of chemical
communication between cells that do not require
secretion of a chemical messenger.
1.Gap junctions (physical linkages connecting the cytosol
between two cells) allow molecules move from one cell to
an adjacent cell without entering the extracellular fluid.
2. Juxtacrine signaling is the chemical messenger not
actually being released from the cell producing it but
rather is located in the plasma membrane of that cell.
When the cell encounters another cell type capable of
responding to the message, the two cells link up via the
membrane-bound messenger.

5/2/2012

Gap Junctions

Stanfield, Figure 2.27b

Adaptation and Acclimatization

The term adaptation denotes a characteristic
that favors survival in specific environments.
Acclimatization refers to the improved
functioning of an already existing homeostatic
system based on an environmental stress.
In an individual acclimatizations are reversible;
adaptations are not.

Biological Rhythms
Many body functions are rhythmical
changes.
Example: circadian rhythm, which cycles
approximately once every 24 h.
Waking and sleeping, body temperature,
hormone concentrations in the blood, the
excretion of ions into the urine, and many
other functions undergo circadian variation

5/2/2012

What have biological rhythms to do with

homeostasis?

They add an anticipatory component to homeostatic

control systems and in effect are a feedforward system
operating without detectors.
The negative-feedback homeostatic responses are
corrective responses. They are initiated after the steady
state of the individual has been perturbed.
Biological rhythms enable homeostatic mechanisms to
be utilized immediately and automatically by activating
them at times when a challenge is likely to occur but
before it actually does occur

Balance in the Homeostasis of Chemical

Substances in the Body
Many homeostatic systems regulate the balance
between addition and removal of a chemical substance
from the body.
Two important generalizations concerning the balance
concept:
(1) During any period of time, total-body balance
depends upon the relative rates of net gain and net
loss to the body
(2) the pool concentration depends not only upon the
total amount of the substance in the body, but also
upon exchanges of the substance within the body.

Figure 1-11

Some of the potential inputs and outputs that can affect the pool of a
material (like glucose) that is a dynamically regulated physiological variable.

5/2/2012

Associated Reading
Vander, Chapter 1

10