Homeostasis

 The word ‘Homeostasis’ means ‘steady state’. When we study homeostasis,

we look at how organisms strive constantly to keep conditions inside their body
as stable as possible.

Homeostasis and feed-back mechanisms

 Homeostasis is controlled by feed-back mechanisms.

 Sense organs detect a change somewhere in the body’s internal environment.
 Information about the change is fed-back to a control center, usually in the
brain, which sends messages to an organ of homeostasis to make the necessary
adjustments.
 The sense organs detect these adjustments and feed-back this information to
the control center, which then modifies its message to the organ of homeostasis.
Homeostasis and feed-back mechanisms

Feed-back
Control Center
Messages to speed Sense organ
up or slow down

Information
Responding organ

Fig: The three parts of a typical feedback mechanism

Organs concerned with homeostasis

 Homeostasis is best developed in humans, other mammals

and birds.
 In these animals, there are organs which keep the following
features of blood and tissue fluid at a fairly constant level:
temperature; dissolved substances such as carbon dioxide,
oxygen, food, urea and various poisonous substances and
osmotic potential.
 The organs of homeostasis which constantly adjust these
features are the lungs, liver, skin and kidneys.
Organs concerned with homeostasis

Fig: Diagram of homeostasis; Lungs control the levels of carbon dioxide and
oxygen; the liver controls levels of amino acids and sugar; the skin helps keep
temperature at about 370C and the kidneys remove waste substances such as
urea, excess water and mineral salts.
Lungs and respiratory tract:
Lungs provide oxygen to the tissues and remove
carbon dioxide to outside.
Respiration includes two phases
(i) inspiration (ii) expiration.

Inspiration means supply of oxygen from the

atmosphere to the tissue space through respiratory
tract and blood.

Expiration means transport of carbon dioxide from

the tissue space to atmosphere through respiratory
tract and blood.
The liver and its role in homeostasis

 The liver plays a central role in homeostasis.

 The liver of an adult man weigh about 6kg and is situated immediately below
the diaphragm.
 It is dark in color owing to the large number of vessels which it contains.
The liver is the largest gland in the body.
 The main functions of the liver are:
 Control of blood glucose level
 Control of amino acid levels
 Control of lipid levels
 Detoxification
 Storage of vitamins.
 The liver and its role in homeostasis
The liver’s main homeostatic function is to regulate the amount of food which
reaches the blood and tissue fluid. It does this mainly by absorbing and storing the
food which it receives and then releasing it into the circulatory system at a rate which
depends upon the body’s current needs.
Regulation of Blood sugar
 The liver, with a set of glands in the pancreas, control the amount of glucose in the
blood with great accuracy.
It is very important that glucose is maintained at a certain constant level. Because,
i) this sugar is the body’s main source of energy.
ii) even slight changes in glucose concentration alter the blood’s osmotic
pressure and therefore alter the rate at which water moves in and out of the body cells
by osmosis.
 Whenever there is an increase in the blood’s glucose level, glands in the pancreas
produce a substance called insulin.
 Insulin stimulates the liver cells to extract glucose from the blood. At first, the liver
converts glucose to glycogen and stores it in its cells. But liver can hold only 100g of
glycogen. When this limit is reached, any remaining excess glucose in the blood is
converted into fat and transferred to more permanent storage areas under the skin and
around various body organs.
 Regulation of Blood sugar
 When there is less glucose in the blood, than normal, the pancreas slows down
insulin production. This causes the liver to convert its stored glycogen into glucose,
which then passes into the blood.
 When all the glycogen has been used up in this way, stored fat is converted into
glucose.
 If after prolonged starvation there is no more fat in the body, protein is converted
into glucose.
 In this way, the liver keeps the body supplied with food for as long as possible
when food is not available anywhere.

Production of heat energy

 The liver produces a great deal of heat as a by-product of the thousands of

chemical reactions which take place within its cells. This heat warms the blood as
it passes through the liver, which in turn warms body tissues as the blood
circulates around the body.
 Temperature control and the skin
 Mammals and birds have a more or less constant body temperature. That is, their
body temperature remains about the same despite variations in the temperature of
their surroundings. For this reason, mammals and birds are often called ‘warm-
blooded’. While, all other animals which cannot maintain a constant temperature
are called ‘ cold blooded’. Reptiles and amphibians are examples.

Control of over heating

 The body makes adjustments which prevent over-heating under at least two
different circumstances:
i) whenever conditions outside the body are near to or hotter than, normal
body temperature (370C in humans).
ii) whenever there is an increase in heat production by the body which
may occur during vigorous exercise or when the body is fighting a disease.
Some of the adjustments which help prevent over-heating in humans will
be discussed in the following sections.
1. Sweating
 Sweating is the production of a watery fluid containing dissolved salt from sweat
glands in the skin.
 The evaporation of sweat is an extremely efficient cooling mechanism and in
climates where air temperature approaches body temperature, sweating is the only
mechanism which can effectively cool the body.
 The rate at which sweat evaporates from the body and therefore its effectiveness
in cooling the body depends on two things:
a. humidity
b. Air movements (e.g. winds or fans)
 Sweat evaporates and cools the body very rapidly in hot, dry, windy conditions.
 In climates of this type, people can tolerate temperatures near to that of their
own bodies and can even take part in vigorous physical exercise without much
discomfort.
 But in hot humid conditions, especially in still air, sweat evaporates and cools the
body very slowly.
 In climates of this type, temperatures near to that of the body can be intolerable
and physical exercise will generate heat that may not be removed from the body. In
this case, the body temperature rises.
1. Sweating (continued)

 The critical body temperature seems to be 410C , above which sudden

collapse and unconsciousness are likely and death may result.
 When a person is forced to work for long periods in a hot climate, his
ability to sweat may suddenly fail altogether. This is called Heat stroke.
If the victim is not taken to a cool place immediately his temperature will
rise uncontrollably with possibly fatal results.
Fig: Skin of mammal
3. Vasodilation

 Vasodilation is the expansion of blood

vessels; that is an increase in their
diameter so that more blood flow through
them.
Whenever the body gets too hot,
vasodilation occurs in the dense network
of capillaries which lie just beneath the
epidermis of the skin.
 These capillaries open up and let a
large volume of overheated blood flow
very close to the body surface. Here the
blood rapidly loses heat by radiation
through the skin, which cools the body.
This is why, a person’s skin becomes a
flushed pink color and feels hot to the
touch when he is hot.
During Hot Weather
3. Relaxation of hair erector muscle

 Whenever heat must be lost from the body, hair erector muscles
relax and so the hairs lie more or less flat against the skin. In this
position, they offer the least possible obstruction to heat loss by
radiation and convection
 Control of over cooling

1. Increased heat production

 The ‘central heating system’ in a warm blooded animal is the heat generated by
metabolism mainly in the liver and muscles and the heat comes from the break
down of food by respiration in these organs.
 Vigorous exercise warms the body because it increases the rate of respiration
and heat production in the muscles.
 However when a person tries to rest in cold conditions, his muscles begin jerky
or rhythmic movements against his will. This is called ‘shivering’ and it is a
mechanism which helps to keep the body warm by automatically causing the
muscles to generate heat whenever necessary.
 In addition, there is a general increase in rate of metabolism during cold
weather which brings about an increased appetite for food. This further increases
heat output and helps maintain a constant body temperature.
2. Reduction of heat loss
a) In cold weather, the hair erector muscles contract, which raises the hair
shafts to an almost vertical position. This keeps prevent heat loss in two
ways:
i) The upright hairs prevent cold winds from reaching the skin where
they would rob the body of heat.
ii) The upright hairs cause a layer of still air to develop around the
body. This air is slowly warmed by body heat and helps to insulate the
body against heat loss, since air is a poor conductor of heat.
This mechanism does not work in human owing to their lack of body hair.
Putting on a warm winter overcoat is man’s equivalent of the contraction of
the hair erector muscles in other mammals. Birds achieve a similar effect
by means of muscles which make their feathers fluff out.
b) Animals which live in cold climates such as seals and polar bears have a
very thick layer of fat beneath the skin called adipose tissue. This fat is
quite effective as a layer of insulation and so helps prevent heat loss from
the body. It is also a store of food.
2. Reduction of heat loss (Continued)

c) The sweat glands cease to

operate in cold weather. This
reduces heat loss by evaporation
but a small amount of water still
evaporates through the epidermis
from moist underlying tissues.
d) In cold weather, vasoconstriction
occurs in the skin’s superficial
capillaries. The capillaries become
smaller in diameter which constricts
blood flow near the body surface
and so reduces heat loss by
radiation through the skin to a
minimum. This explains why the
skin looks pale in cold weather.

During Cold Weather

 Excretion
 Excretion is the removal from the body of waste substances which are produced
by metabolism and of substances of which the body has an excess. In other words,
excretion is the removal of unwanted substances from the body.

 Excretion is an important part of homeostasis because if these substances were

not removed, they would poison cells or slow down metabolism. The lungs and
kidneys are the main organs of excretion.

 The most poisonous of all the waste by products of metabolism is ammonia.

Ammonia is formed during the breakdown of excess amino acids in the liver.

 Ammonia is very soluble and kills cells if its concentration in the blood rises above
1part in 25000.

 The liver immediately converts ammonia into a relatively harmless substance

called urea, which is released into the blood.

 The kidneys extract urea from the blood and excrete it from the
body as part of a liquid called urine.

 The kidneys are part of a set of organs known as the urinary

system.
 Excretory System
• Kidneys are the excretory organ of our body. These
are the major component of urinary system.
• Urinary system includes
• (i) Kidneys...formation of urine
• (ii) Ureters…transport of urine from
kidneys to urinary bladder
• (iii) Urinary bladder…reservoir of urine
• (iv) Urethra...passage of urine from urinary
bladder to outside
 Kidney Structure
• Each kidney contains about one million Nephrones which are
the structural & functional unit of kidneys.

Figure –
General
organization
of the
kidneys and
the urinary
system
 Functions of kidneys
• Excretion of excess unnecessary substances
& metabolic waste products
• Osmoregulation
• Regulation of
(i) water & electrolyte balances
(ii) acid-base balances
(iii) blood pressure
(iv) red cell production

Osmoregulation is the process by which cells and

simple organisms maintain fluid and electrolyte
balance with their surroundings.
 How kidneys clean blood
• Kidneys clean blood by filtering it. They filter
all our blood 300 times a day. The filtering is
done by over a million tubes packed into
each kidney. These tubes are called
nephrones.
• Some people’s kidneys are not very good at
filtering blood. Kidney machines help by
filtering blood for them.
Kidney machines and transplants

 There are several diseases which affect kidneys. The commonest infections
cause inflammation of the kidneys, obstruction of urine flow, or reduction
of blood flow into the kidneys.
 These disorders reduce kidney efficiency and can cause them to fail
altogether. When this happens, urea and other wastes accumulate in the blood
to dangerous levels, which can lead to death.
 Treatment of serious cases include the use of a kidney machine to ‘clean’ the
blood or a kidney transplant.

Kidney machines

 A kidney machine receives blood through a tube connected to an artery.

Inside the machine, blood flows through dialysis tubing which allows
small molecules including urea to pass through its walls. The ‘cleaned’ blood
is returned to the patient through a tube connected to a vein.
 Kidney machines allow patients with kidney failure to remain healthy
provided dialysis is carried out every few days
 This is time consuming and unpleasant.
 Kidney transplants

 Of all the organ transplant techniques, kidney transplants have been the most
successful. The best results occur when a kidney is removed from one identical
twin to another: their tissue and body chemistry are identical- so the patient’s body
accepts the new kidney as if it were its own.
 Most problems occur when the donor is unrelated to the patient. When this
happens, the patient’s body may treat the new kidney as if it were a disease
organism and produce antibodies and white blood cells to destroy it. This is
called Tissue rejection.
 To avoid this, the patient is injected with anti-rejection drugs. But these
weaken the body’s ability to fight off infections, so the patient must be kept in a
germ-free atmosphere until tissue rejection ceases to be a significant risk.