today

introduce course personnel

how to contact us
office hours
course logistics
textbook, readings
exams, grading
smartsite, lecture slides, podcasts
first lecture
goal
strategy
organ systems, cell types
explanation of course title
NPB 101 - SYSTEMIC PHYSIOLOGY
1) are you taking more than 14 units?
2) have you completed the pre-requisites?
3) do you have more than one final exam on the
same day as ours?
4) have you taken a 5-unit course @ Davis?
before you start this course...
time/place
lecture slides
podcasts
smartsite
pre-req
personnel
office hrs
textbook
readings
exams
grading
questions &
announcements
course pace
no early, late, or
make-up exams
lecture topics syllabus p.4 on smartsite
no ENWS
if you take all 3 exams, you will be
able to drop the lowest MT score
if improves your course letter grade
ucd e!mail addresses
Fig 1-4
to understand the structure & function of
organ systems that facilitate survival on land.
goal:
consider 2 approaches to understanding organ systems
the electrician says...
Your body uses neural circuits to:
1) generate & send electrical signals
to your brain and spinal cord about
stimuli impinging on you (light, sound,
touch, temperature, pH, osmolarity, etc)
2) respond appropriately by
producing responses in various
tissues (skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, smooth
muscle, glands, other nerve cells)
So lets learn:
1) how nerve cells generate & send
out signals
2) how these produce responses in
various targets.
Note: Molecular mechanisms, brain structure &
functions, and diseases are covered by other courses.
the plumber says...
Your body also sends chemicals
around the body via the blood
hormones to control body functions.
1) hormones reach their targets more
slowly, and produce responses that
are often slower and more long-lasting
(than responses to neural inputs)
2) helps control neural development,
digestion, metabolism, stress
responses, reproduction
3) help determine cell birth,
development, death
So lets learn:
1) how hormones alter cell & organ
function
2) how hormonal & neural inputs
work together in some cases, and
not others.
1) in miles per hour, how fast does a nerve signal travel from your
brain to your spinal cord?
2) what percent of your body weight is water?
3) once you swallow a meal, what moves it through your stomach and
intestines, & why dont you feel it move?
4) whats rigor mortis?
5) whats renal failure?
6) hold an espresso cup at arms length: what percent of your retina
does this fall on? how much of your visual cortex is used to process
this?
simple examples...
Look around you. Notice that terrestrial vertebrates are
collections of cells on dry land.
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As evolutionary biologists and ecologists, you might ask why?
For example, if this primate took several days to walk across the
landscape shown here, what problems would it face & how will it
solve these problems?
As physiologists, we will spend this quarter asking how?
That is, what structures & functions of its body enable it to survive?
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To begin with, the concentration of water in the air is less than
inside us. To estimate this, compare the H
2
O inside an average
person vs. the H
2
O in air even on a humid day
Since air is so much drier, we tend to lose water.
To avoid dehydration -- we must balance fluid intake versus fluid
loss.
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temperature water vapor
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C mm Hg mg per liter
of air
10 9.2 9.4
20 17.5 17.3
30 31.7 30.3
Our bodies contain ~ 670,000 mg per liter (average body weight of 80 kg implies
~48 kg of fluid; this is inside a volume is 72 liters, assuming the volume of a body is 0.9 liter per kg).
Problem: our bodies do not manufacture chemical elements (e.g. Na,
K, Ca, Mg, Cl, C, H, O, N, P...) (for review, see Sherwood, Table B-1)
Solution: We acquire the ones we need.
Next, recall that our bodies contain a wide variety of chemicals,
ranging from free inorganic ions to enormous organic (carbon-containing)
molecules (for review, see Sherwood, Appendices B & C)
Examples:
1) Na
+
to help move material across membranes in kidney (during
urine formation) and small intestine (during digestion)
2) Na
+
, K
+
, and Ca
2+
for electrical signals in nerves and muscles
3) Ca
2+
to support release of neurotransmitters and hormones
4) Ca
2+
to support muscle contraction
5) carbohydrates
6) lipids
7) proteins
8) nucleic acids
How do we acquire these? Vertebrates normally
acquire chemicals through their mouth.
This poses at least 4 problems
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2 At the same time, when we acquire
chemicals we need and want, we may
acquire some that we do not want or do
not use (e.g., excess K
+
ions). So, we
need ways to eliminate unwanted
materials.
3 Also, when we use materials we ingest,
we accumulate useless waste
products. Especially because some of
these are harmful, we need ways to
eliminate waste products.
1 Most cells of the body are not near the
mouth. The body must therefore
distribute chemical material throughout
the body.
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4 To avoid various malfunctions, the correct chemical
composition and volume of fluids inside and outside the
cells must be maintained.
the following condition can
excess K
+
cause abnormal electrical activity in cardiac
muscle (arrhythmias) & peripheral nerves
excess H
+
(acidosis) depress neural function. extreme cases can
result in coma
excess Na
+
(from diet) lead to fluid retention - one kind of renal
hypertension
excess leakage of protein
and fat (from blood)
lead to fluid accumulation (edema)
excess cerebrospinal fluid
hydrocephaly
excess pressure on the brain & (eventually)
damage
excess aqueous humor
(a fluid filling the eyeball)
produce a kind of glaucoma & (eventually)
blindness
To avoid harm:
a) save energy during rest
b) be ready for defensive behavior or escape
c) fight or eliminate pathogens
Aside from acquiring water & food, we need to survive in two other
respects:
To perpetuate the species:
Animals have limited life spans & do not
multiply spontaneously.
So, they reproduce sexually (see lectures 43-47).
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included for most lectures - know these
Cells achieve these overall goals by forming organ systems.
For each system, we will examine the...
1) functional design
2) structural organization
3) resting state
4) response to environmental challenges
Our goal is to understand the physiology of these organ systems i.e.,
the combination of structural properties and functional mechanisms
enabling each system to work for us.
This is why our course title is Systemic Physiology.
how can we study the anatomy?
macroscopically, in terms of cell types & 3D organization...
i.e., cell types, tissues, organs, & organ systems
muscle (contraction)
- skeletal
- cardiac
- smooth
nervous (signals)
- central (neurons & glia)
- peripheral (neurons & glia)
epithelial (exchange)
- epithelial cells transport
- epithelial sheets forms boundaries
- glands secretion
- exocrine external secretion
- endocrine internal secretion
connective (structural support)
- tendons
- bones
- blood
cell types (n=4) & tissues (groups of one type of cell)
organs more than one tissue type, organized to perform a function
e.g., small intestine
- epithelial
epithelial sheet - transports some components of digested
food to blood; forms barrier to others
exocrine gland - secretes digestive enzymes, etc.
endocrine gland - regulates exocrine secretion
- muscle
smooth muscle - moves the partially digested food
mixes it with material secreted by exocrine glands
pushes it toward large intestine
- nervous
e.g., peripheral nerves - regulate contraction
- connective
structural support
- skeletal
skeletal
muscle
cardiac
muscle
bone
glands
blood
tendon
neuron
glia
epithelium
at a gross level, the tissue is prominent in some cases e.g., muscle or skin
in other cases, the organ is more noticeable e.g., stomach
smooth
muscle
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organ systems groups of organs achieving major functions.
we will study the first 8 systems listed here.
during this quarter, consider 5 common sense functional properties
#1: some organ systems take primary responsibility for
accomplishing certain tasks. Their function can be regulated by
other systems.
how can we study the function of organ systems?
example:
The circulatory system transports nutrients, O
2
, CO
2
, hormones,
electrolytes, and blood-borne wastes around the body.
But heart rate & force of cardiac contraction can be regulated by both
the nervous & endocrine systems.
#2: some organ systems accomplish tasks by working with
other systems.
example: fluid balance is achieved by balancing water gain and loss.
The renal system controls the largest amount of water loss from the
body, by controlling the volume of urine formed by the kidneys.
Water gain is mainly through consumed liquids. Consumption is
driven by 2 neural circuits that control a thirst center in the brain.
#3: systems generally have multiple functions.
example: the renal system
a) forms the urine
b) controls the urine volume
c) helps control concentrations of electrolytes (e.g. Na
+
& K
+
) in the
blood
e) helps control concentration of acid (H
+
) in the blood
e) cleverly eliminates foreign substances & waste from the blood
#4: one function of organ systems is to achieve homeostasis -
that is, to try to maintain constant conditions.
Fig 1-6
e.g., maintaining
blood pressure
blood volume
blood composition
muscle length
#5: when stimuli (or changes in
ambient conditions) produce
changes in cells, homeostasis is
achieved by responses that
restore conditions that existed
prior to the stimulus.
pp 651-656
the effect of these responses is called
negative feedback - because the
responses oppose the effects of the
original stimuli.
example: temperature regulation
so... which systems accomplish the tasks we listed earlier?
fluid balance
nervous (osmoreceptors, volume receptors)
renal (control urine volume)
motor (find/ingest water)
acquire chemicals
nervous & motor
smell, recognize, find food
taste food (decide if its edible)
ingest food (chew/swallow food)
gastrointestinal
smooth muscle (move food, unconsciously, thru digestive tract)
transport across epithelial lining of digestive tract
venous & lymph systems, returning food components to heart
endocrine
secretion of gastrointestinal hormones, digestive enzymes, bile
distribute chemicals cardiovascular
adjust composition cardiovascular, renal, respiratory, endocrine
rest
respond to harm
nervous
brake & accelerator inputs to various target tissues (heart, blood vessels,
skeletal muscle, digestive system, renal system)
immune system
perpetuate species
reproductive
which system should we study first?
note:
1) most functions involve multiple systems, and each system
is complex. So, we should learn individual systems first and
then build from there.
2) the nervous system controls many major functions, and it
allows us to interact with the world. (It allows us to sense and
respond to internal and external stimuli, and to move through and act
on our surroundings).
3) it uses electrical signals to do its jobs. If we understand
those, we can more easily understand electrical events
in other tissues (heart, skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, glands).
4) so... we will begin this course with the nervous system.
end