It gives the body support and provides a framework
Bones
Bones are Living tissue
Bones are made up of living cells, so they
can grow and repair themselves if damaged.
Long Bones are hollow, this makes them hollow which
makes themstronger and movement far more efficient.
The hole in the middle of some long bones is filled with bone marrow,
bone marrow is a spongy substance that makes new blood cells.
Even when bones are no longer growing, bone
tissue is constantly being broken down and renewed.
Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals are all vertebrates.
Insects are Invertebrates, so they have an exoskeleton.
Cartilage
Bones are living tissue
that start off as cartilage
Bones start off as cartilage in the womb.
Cartilage is a living tissue that looks and feels
rubbery. it can grow and repair itself too.
As you grow, a lot of cartilage is replaced by bone. Blood
vessels deposit calcium and phosphorus in the cartilage, this
eventually hardens into bone. This process is called ossification.
You can tell if someones still growing by looking at how much cartilage is present
Even when you're fully grown, the ends of the bones remain
covered with cartilage to prevent friction between them..
Bones and Cartilage can get damaged
Cartilage and bone are both made up of living tissue, so can get infected
Even though bones are strong, they can
be fractured or broken by a sharp knock.
Fractures are hard tissue injuries where the bone cracks or
breaks, the tissue around the bone can also get damaged.
It can be dangerous to move someone with a suspected fracture as moving
them could cause further damage to the bone, tissue and nervous system.
There are three types of fractures:
Compound (open) fractures are when the skin is broken and part of
the bone is sticking out, this is the most serious type of fracture.
Simple (closed) fractures are when the bone is cracked but the skin isn't broken.
Greenstick fractures are when the bone is cracked on one side and bent on the other.
Elderly people are more prone to brake bones as they are more brittle Elderly people
often suffer from osteoporosis, this is where calcium is lost making the bones softer.
Heart-Rate, The Cardiac cycle and Circulatory System
Bicuspid valve
The heart is a muscular organ located in the thorax.
It pumps blood continuously around the body.
The blood supplies cells with oxygen and glucose, needed for respiration.
The blood also transports the waste products, such as
carbon dioxide, the waste product of respiration, and urea.
Special arteries called coronary arteries carry blood to the heart to
supply the heart muscle cells with oxygen and glucose for contraction .
Circulatory systems
A circulatory system consists of a group of organs that
transport substances, such as oxygen, around the body.
Some organisms, such as insects, have an open circulatory
system, where the fluid moves freely between cells.
Other organisms, including humans, have a closed circulatory system where
blood is contained within vessels, where these factors can be controlled:
The speed of the blood flow
The pressure of the blood
The distribution of
blood in the body
A single circulatory system has a two-chambered heart so that blood
can be returned to one chamber, and pumped back out of the heart
from the second chamber. This ensures blood flow in one direction only.
Humans and other mammals have a double circulatory system. This has
two circuits from the heart, one to the body and the other to the lungs.
In a double circulatory system, you need a for chambered heart. This allows the blood to be
pumped separately to the lungs and to the body, this is important for maintaining a high pressure.
In animals with a Single circulatory system, the blood loses as its pumped to the gills
and then around the rest of the body, this means overall pressure is relatively low.
Keeping the blood pressure at a higher pressure allows
materials to be transported around the body more quickly
Unborn babies don't need a Double circulatory system. they get their oxygen from their mother
via the placenta, so their blood doesn't need to travel to their lungs. As a result all unborn babies
have a hole in their heart which allows blood to bypass the lungs. It closes up soon after birth.
The Cardiac cycle
The heart pumps blood around the body by contracting
and relaxing the atria and ventricles in sequence.
Blood is prevented from flowing in the wrong
direction by the atrio-ventricular and semilunar valves.
The sequence of events in one complete heartbeat is called the cardiac cycle:
1. Blood flows into the two atria, the semilunar valves
are closed and the atrio-ventricular valves are open.
2. The atria contracts, pushing the blood into the ventricles
3. The ventricles contract, forcing the blood into the aorta and pulmonary artery. This
causes the semilunar valves to open and the atrio-ventricular valves automatically close.
4. The blood then flows along the arteries, the atria fill again and the cycle starts over.
Heart rate
Heart rate changes according to activity
When you exercise, your muscles need more oxygen to work harder, so you need to breath
faster. Your heart also pumps faster to deliver more oxygenated blood to your muscles.
Hormones can also effect your heart rate, e.g. Adrenaline increases heart rate to make sure your muscles have plenty of oxygen.
The heart has a pacemaker
The heart is told how fast to beat by a group of cells called pacemakers
These cells produce a small electric current which spreads to the surrounding muscle cells causing them to contract
The Cardiac cycle and circulation
The sino-atrial node (SAN) stimulates the atria to contract
The Atio-ventricular node (AVN) stimulates the ventricles to contract
In one heartbeat the SAN produces an electric current first, which spreads to the atria (making them contract). The current current stimulates the
AVN to produce an electric current (causing the ventricles to contract) . This process ensures that the atira always contract before the ventricles.
An artificial pacemaker is often used to control heartbeat if the pacemaker calls are defective, it's a little
device that's implanted under the skin and has a wire going to the heart where an electric current is produced.
ElectoCardioGram's (ECG's) measure the heart
ECG's shows the electrical activity of the heart, they can show:
Heart Attacks
Irregular heartbeats
The general health of the heart
The diagram below shows a normal ECG:
Heart Disease
There are three main ways the heart can go wrong:
1. Hole in the heart: A hole in the heart is a gap in the wall separating either the two ventricles or the two
atria. It allows blood to move directly from one side of the heart to the other. This allows deoxygenated blood
and oxygenated blood to mix, which reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood being pumped to the body.
A hole in the heart sometimes needs to be corrected by surgery.
2. Valve damage: The valves in the heart can be weakened by heart attacks, Infection or old age. The
damage may cause the valve not to open properly, causing high blood pressure. It may even allow blood to
flow in both directions rather than just forwards, this means it doesn't circulate as effectively as normal.
Severe valve damage can be treated with replacing the valve with an artificial one.
3. Coronary Heat Disease: CHD is when the Coronary Arteries supplying blood to the heart muscle get
blocked by Fatty deposits. This reduces blood flow to the heart muscle and often results in a heart attack.
It can be treated by a Coronary bypass operation, where a piece of blood vessel
is taken from another part of the body and inserted to bypass the blockage.
Artificial parts can be used instead of Heart transplants
1. The main advantage of using artificial parts (valves and pacemakers) is that
rejection isn't normally a problem. They're usually made from metals or plastics, which
the body can't recognise as foreign in the same way as it does with living tissue.
2. Replacing a valve is a much less drastic procedure than a transplant,
and inserting a pacemaker only involves a short stay in hospital.
3. However, the main disadvantage is that the new valves and
pacemakers might not last very long and will need replacing as a result.
Blood Cloting and Transfusions
Blood sometimes doesn't clot properly
1. when you're injured, your blood clots to prevent too much bleeding. A clot is a mesh of fibrin fibre proteins that plugs the damaged area. Clots are formed by
a series of chemical reactions that take place when platelets (small fragments of cells that help blood clot) in your blood are exposed to damaged blood vessels.
2. Too little clotting could mean you bleed too death. too much clotting can cause strokes and Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
3. People who are at risk of strokes or DVT can take drugs to reduce their risk. Warfarin, heparin and aspirin all help prevent the blood from clotting.
4. Haemophilia is a genetic condition where the blood doesn't clot easily because a clotting factor can't be made by the body, this missing clotting factor can be injected.
Blood type is important in Transfusions
1. When you have lost a lot of blood, you will need it to be replaced in a transfusion, using blood from a blood donor.
2. People have different blood groups, you can be anyone of: A, B, AB or O. These letters refer to the type of antigens on the
surface of a persons red blood cells (an antigen is a substance that can trigger a response from the body's immune system).
3. Red blood cells can have either A or B antigens (or neither or both) on their surface. Blood plasma can also contain anti-A or anti-B antibodies.
4. If an anti-A antibody meets an A antigen, the blood clumps together. This is known as agglutination. This also happens
when an anti-B antibody meets a B antigen. The antibodies are acting as agglutinins (things that make stuff clump together).
This table explains which blood groups can donate blood to other blood groups: