Chapter 1 - Saladin 5e Outline Major Themes of Anatomy and Physiology

I. The Scope of Anatomy and Physiology A. Anatomy is the study of form 1. Anatomy and dissection both mean cutting apart, and dissection is essential for study. 2. Comparative anatomy studies bodies of more than one species. 3. Exploratory surgery has now been largely replaced by medical imaging. 4. Radiology is the branch of medicine concerned with imaging. 5. Gross anatomy involves structures that can be seen with the naked eye. 6. Histology is the observation of tissue specimens microscopically. a. Histopathology is studying tissue for signs of disease. b. Ultrastructure is the fine detail of tissue revealed by the electron microscope. B. Physiology is the study of function 1. Physiology has many subdisciplines that study specific systems or disease in general. 2. Comparative physiology is the study of biological functions of different species. 3. Comparative physiology is often the basis of new drugs and new procedures. II. Human Origins and Adaptations A. The cell theory and the theory of natural selection have broad implications for human origins and understanding the human body. 1. Charles Darwins book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) presented the first well-supported theory of evolution. 2. In The Descent of Man (1871) Darwin addressed the issue of human evolution. B. Evolution means the change in the genetic composition of a population of organisms. C. Natural selection is the principle theory of how evolution works. 1. Some individuals have hereditary advantages of competitors that allow them to produce more offspring, thus increasing their characteristics in a population. 2. Selection pressures are forces such as climate, predators, disease, competition, and the availability of food. 3. Adaptations are features of an organism that have evolved in response to selection pressures. 4. The DNA of humans has a difference of only 1.6% compared to that of chimpanzees on the basis of hybridization studies.

5. Our evolutionary relationship to other species makes possible the testing of drugs on other species, especially those considered closer to us. a. An animal species selected for research on a question is termed a model. D. Humans belong to an order of mammals called Primates, which also includes monkeys and apes. 1. The earliest primates were descended from squirrel-sized insectivores that lived in trees 60 million years ago. 2. The shoulder of these early primates adapted to become more mobile, allowing reaching in any direction. a. Arboreal animals also developed fully opposable thumbs that made hands prehensile, or able to grasp branches. 3. Eyes of primates became more forward-facing, allowing for stereoscopic vision. 4. Color vision, rare in mammals, also evolved in primates. a. Color vision allowed identification of ripe fruits and tender, young leaves. 5. Humans did not evolve from monkeys or apes, but from a common ancestor. E. Four to five million years ago, primates living on savanna (grasslands) evolved adaptations that allowed them to walk upright. 1. Bipedalism means standing and walking on two legs, and adaptations of the feet, legs, pelvis, spine, skull and arms were necessary. a. Fossil footprints have been found of bipedal primates dating to 3.6 million years ago. 2. Brain volume increased dramatically as adaptations for bipedalism occurred. a. Increased skull size would make birth difficult and may explain why human infants are born in an immature state. b. Helplessness of young increased the need for parental care and may explain the development of family ties. 3. The oldest bipedal primates were in the genus Australopithecus. 4. About 2.5 million years ago, the genus Homo arose. a. Homo erectus migrated from Africa to parts of Asia about 1.8 million years ago. b. Homo sapiens originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago, and is the sole surviving hominid species. 5. Homo sapiens has been difficult to define, and naming and classification is still a matter of debate. F. Evolutionary medicine is an emerging science that uses an evolutionary perspective to view medical conditions and diseases.

III. Human Structure A. Humans exhibit a hierarchy of complexity in body structures. 1. The organism is a single, complete individual. 2. An organ system is a group of organs with a unique collective function. a. Examples of organ systems include circulation, respiration, and digestion. b. The human body has 11 organ systems. 3. An organ is a structure composed of two or more tissue types that work together to carry out a particular function. a. Organs have definite anatomic boundaries and are distinguishable from other structures. b. Organs within organs exist; the skin is the bodys largest organ, but contains thousands of smaller organs such as glands, hairs, nerves, etc. 4. A tissue is a mass of similar cells and cell products that forms a discrete region in an organ and carries out a specific function. a. The body is composed of only four primary tissue classes: epithelial, connective, nervous, and muscular. 5. Cells are the smallest units of an organism that can carry out all the basic functions of life. 6. Organelles are microscopic structures within a cell that carry out individual functions. a. Examples include mitochondria, centrosomes, and lysosomes. 7. Molecules are groups of two or more atoms bonded together. 8. Cells and their organelles contain highly complex macromolecules. 9. Atoms are the smallest particles of matter that have unique chemical identities. 10. Reductionism is the theory that a large, complex system can be understood by studying its simpler components. a. Reductionism has been a highly productive approach but is not the last word in understanding human life. 11. Holism is the theory that whole organisms have emergent properties that cannot be predicted from the properties of their component parts. a. Human beings are more than the sum of their parts. b. To be most effective, health care providers must treat the whole person, not just a disease or an organ system. B. Anatomical variation is normal, and reference books and materials usually provide only the most common form based on 70% of the population. 1. Some people lack certain organs, such as certain muscles.

2. Some people have variations in structures, such as four or six lumbar vertebrae instead of five, or differences in number and morphology of kidneys. Situs Inversus and Other Unusual Anatomy IV. Human Function A. Life is characterized by several properties: organization, cellular composition, metabolism and excretion, responsiveness and movement, homeostasis, development, reproduction, and evolution. 1. Living things exhibit a higher level of organization than the nonliving world around them. 2. Living matter is composed of cells. 3. Living things take in molecules from the environment, change them, and excrete molecules they can no longer use. a. Metabolism is the sum of all internal chemical changes and comprises anabolism, or synthesis reactions, and catabolism, or breakdown reactions. b. Excretion is required to remove the waste molecules produced by metabolism. 4. Organisms can react to stimuli and are capable of movement. a. The ability to sense and react to stimuli is called responsiveness, irritability, or excitability. b. Most organisms can move from place to place, or are at least capable of moving materials internally within their bodies and cells. 5. Homeostasis is the ability to maintain stable internal conditions. 6. Development is any change in form or function over an organisms lifetime. a. Differentiation is the transformation of generalized cells into cells with specialized tasks. b. Growth is an increase in size and occurs via chemical change. 7. All living things are capable of producing copies of themselves (offspring) and passing on their genes. 8. All living species exhibit genetic change from generation to generation and therefore evolve. a. Mutations, changes in DNA structure, are inevitable. b. Selection pressures mean that some individuals will be more successful than others. c. Clinical and legal criteria for life are different from the biological criteria; a person may be declared legally dead if they show no brain function for 24 hours, no reflexes, no respiration, and no heartbeat other than provided by artificial means. B. Physiological variables differ depending on sex, age, weight, diet, activity, environment, etc. 1. Values given in textbooks are for a healthy young adult unless otherwise stated.

2. The reference man is a healthy male 22 years old, weighing 70 kg (154 lb) living at an ambient temperature of 20C, engaging in light physical activity and consuming 2800 kcals per day. 3. The reference woman is the same except for a weight of 58 kg (128 lb) and an intake of 2000 kcals per day. C. Homeostasis is the ability to maintain stable internal conditions, and it is accomplished by the bodys negative feedback mechanisms. 1. Physiology is largely a group of mechanisms for maintaining homeostasis. a. Loss of homeostatic control can lead to illness or death. b. Pathophysiology studies unstable conditions. 2. Internal conditions are not constant but fluctuate within a range. a. The internal state of the body is best described as dynamic equilibrium. b. The bodys characteristics, such as temperature, tend to vary around a certain set point or average value 3. Negative feedback. is a process in which the body senses a change and activates a process to reverse it. a. A thermostat that controls room temperature is an example of a negative feedback system. i. The thermostat is set to a temperaturethe set point. ii. The furnace turns on when the temperature drops too low, and off when the temperature goes too high. b. Feedback mechanisms are often called feedback loops because they alter the changes that triggered them. 4. Body temperature is regulated by a negative feedback system. a. When overheated, the bodys internal thermostat in the brain brings about vasodilation (widening of blood vessels) in the skin to lose heat to the air, and sweating for evaporative cooling. b. When chilled, the bodys thermostat brings about vasoconstriction (narrowing of blood vessels) in the skin to retain heat, and activates shivering to generate heat from muscles. 5. Blood pressure is also regulated by negative feedback. a. If pressure is too low, baroreceptors in the wall of large arteries near the heart send signals to a cardiac center in the brain stem. b. The cardiac center increases the heart rate to raise blood pressure. 6. Feedback loops include a receptor, and integrating (control) center, and an effector that brings about a change. D. Positive feedback is a self-amplifying cycle.

1. In positive feedback, a physiological change leads to an even greater change in the same direction. 2. The process of birth is an example of a positive feedback loop. a. Oxytocin is the hormone responsible for stimulation of uterine contractions, which build in a positive feedback cycle until the fetus is expelled. b. Blood clotting, protein digestion, and the generation of nerve signals are other examples of processes that utilize positive feedback. 3. Positive feedback may be harmful or life-threatening if the effects of the loop push the body too far from homeostasis. a. Fever is one example; if the bodys temperature rises above 108F, the metabolic rate increases, which causes temperature to rise further. V. The Language of Medicine A. Anatomical terminology is codified in the Terminologia Anatomica (TA) (1998). 1. About 90% of medical terms are formed from just 1200 Greek and Latin roots. 2. Many structures were given eponyms, that is, they were named after researchers. 3. The Nomina Anatomica (NA) is a list of terms in which eponyms have been rejected, and each structure is given a unique Latin name that is used worldwide. B. Scientific terms are typically composed of one or more of these elements: roots, combining vowels, prefixes, and suffixes. 1. A root has the core meaning of the word: In cardiology, the root is cardi- (heart). 2. A combining vowel is often inserted to join roots, such as the first o in cytochrome and the a in ligament. 3. A prefix may modify the core meaning, such as epigastric, hypogastric, endogastric, etc. 4. A suffix may also modify the core meaning, such as microscope, microscopy, microscopist. 5. Being able to break down a word into its components helps one to understand and remember its meaning, but this approach is no help with acronymswords that are formed from the first letter or letters of a group of words, such as calmodulin. C. Plurals, adjectival, and possessive forms of medical terms follow a set of rules based on the languages of origin. 1. Brachium denotes the arm, and brachii means of the arm, etc. 2. Digiti means of a single finger or toe, but digitorum means of multiple fingers or toes, etc. 3. Following the Greek and Latin practice, adjectives are placed after the noun. D. Precision is critical in spelling medical terms, because a simple error in one letter may misidentify the structure or disease being discussed.

1. Trapezius is a muscle, but trapezium is a bone in the wrist; occipitalis is a muscle name, but occipital is a bone; ileum is part of the small intestine, while ilium is the hip bone; etc. VI. Review of Major Themes A. Cell theory: All structure and function result from the activity of cells. B. Homeostasis: The purpose of most normal physiology is to maintain stable conditions within the body. C. Evolution: The human body is a product of evolution. D. Hierarchy of structure: Human structure can be viewed as a series of levels of complexity. E. Unity of form and function: Form and function complement each other; physiology cannot be divorced from anatomy.