Flashcards on Homeostasis: Maintaining the Internal Environment
Homeostasis: Maintaining the Internal Environment Explained
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Homeostasis and Internal Environment
8 cards
Card 1
Question: What is homeostasis?
Answer: Homeostasis is the maintenance of a constant internal environment (the conditions in the blood and tissue fluid) so cells can function properly.
Card 2
Question: Why must the body keep conditions around its cells constant?
Answer: Cells only function properly in the correct conditions; keeping internal conditions constant ensures optimal cell function despite changes in the exte
Card 3
Question: What surrounds most body cells and supplies them with a constant environment?
Answer: Tissue fluid surrounds most body cells and provides the constant, ideal conditions for them.
Card 4
Question: How do cells change the composition of their surrounding tissue fluid?
Answer: Cells remove nutrients and oxygen from the tissue fluid and add carbon dioxide and other wastes, altering its composition.
Card 5
Question: What basic principle do all homeostatic systems follow?
Answer: They monitor and adjust internal conditions to keep the environment around cells constant, often using negative feedback mechanisms.
Card 6
Question: Name organs that play a part in homeostasis and one condition each helps regulate.
Answer: Skin regulates heat exchange; kidneys regulate water and salt levels and remove urea; lungs regulate exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide; intestines
Card 7
Question: What is the role of the heart in homeostasis?
Answer: The heart supplies the constant pressure needed to deliver blood to tissues and to form tissue fluid around cells.
Card 8
Question: Give an example of an internal condition that is maintained at an optimum state and its example value from the text.
Answer: Glucose concentration in the blood/tissue fluid is maintained at an optimum, given as 1 mg per cm^3 in the text.