Introduction to Physiology
By
Mona A Hussain
Assistant Professor in Physiology
FOM- PSU
Learning Objectives
• Name the different levels of structural organization that make up the
human body, and explain their relationships.
• List the 11 organ systems of the body, identify their components.
• Briefly explain the major function(s) of each system.
• List the functional characteristics necessary to maintain life and the
survival needs of the body.
The Scope of Human Physiology
Physiology is the study of how living organisms function.
• As applied to human beings, its scope is extremely broad.
• At one end of the spectrum, it includes the study of individual molecules. At the
other end, it is concerned with complex processes that depend on the integrated
functions of many organs in the body.
• Many areas of function are still only poorly understood.
Levels of structural organization of human
body
Muscle Cells and Tissue
Muscles may be grouped according to:
• Their location in relation to other body structures (anatomical)
• Their histological (tissue) structure
• The way their action is controlled
Muscle Cells and Tissue
Neurons and Nervous Tissue
• A neuron is a cell of the nervous system that is specialized to initiate,
integrate, and conduct electrical signals to other cells, sometimes over long
distances.
• A signal may initiate new electrical signals in other neurons, or it may
stimulate a gland cell to secrete substances or a muscle cell to contract.
• neurons provide a major means of controlling the activities of other cells.
Epithelial Cells and Epithelial Tissue
• Epithelial cells are specialized for the selective secretion and
absorption of ions and organic molecules, and for protection.
• These cells are characterized and named according to their unique
shapes, including cuboidal (cube-shaped), columnar (elongated),
squamous (flattened), and ciliated.
• Epithelial tissue (known as an epithelium) may be arranged in single-
cell-thick tissue, called a simple epithelium, or a thicker tissue
consisting of numerous layers of cells, called a stratified epithelium.
Connective-Tissue Cells and Connective Tissue
• Connective-tissue cells , as their name implies, connect, and support the structures of the body.
• Some connective-tissue cells are found in the loose meshwork of cells and fibers underlying most
epithelial layers; this is called loose connective tissue.
• Another type called dense connective tissue includes the tough, rigid tissue that makes up
tendons and ligaments.
• Other types of connective tissue include bone, cartilage, and adipose (fat-storing) tissue.
• Finally, blood is a type of fluid connective tissue. This is because the cells in the blood have the
same embryonic origin as other connective tissue, and because the blood connects the various
organs and tissues of the body through the delivery of nutrients, removal of wastes, and transport
of chemical signals from one part of the body to another.
Organs and organ systems
Organs and Organ Systems
• The organ system, a collection of organs that together perform an
overall function.
• For example, the kidneys; the urinary bladder; the ureters (the tubes
leading from the kidneys to the bladder) and the urethra, (the tube
leading from the bladder to the exterior) constitute the urinary
system.
Necessary Life Functions
1- Maintaining Boundaries
• Every living organism must maintain its boundaries so that its internal environment (its
inside) remains distinct from the external environment surrounding it (its outside).
• In single-celled organisms, the external boundary is a limiting membrane that encloses
its contents and lets-in needed substances while restricting entry of potentially damaging
or unnecessary substances.
• Similarly, all the cells of our body are surrounded by a selectively permeable membrane.
• Additionally, the body as a whole is enclosed and protected by the integumentary
system, or skin. This system protects our internal organs from drying out (a fatal change),
bacteria, and the damaging effects of heat, sunlight, and an unbelievable number of
chemicals in the external environment.
Necessary Life Functions
2- Movement
• Movement includes the activities promoted by the muscular system, such
as propelling ourselves from one place to another by running or swimming,
and manipulating the external environment with our fingers.
• Movement also occurs when substances such as blood, foodstuffs, and
urine are propelled through internal organs of the cardiovascular, digestive,
and urinary systems, respectively.
• On the cellular level, the muscle cell’s ability to move by shortening is more
precisely called contractility.
Necessary Life Functions
3- Responsiveness
• Responsiveness, or excitability, is the ability to sense changes (which serve
as stimuli) in the environment and then respond to them.
• For example, if you cut your hand on broken glass, a withdrawal reflex
occurs—you involuntarily pull your hand away from the painful stimulus
(the broken glass). You don’t have to think about it—it just happens!,
• Because nerve cells are highly excitable and communicate rapidly with each
other via electrical impulses, the nervous system is most involved with
responsiveness. However, all body cells are excitable to some extent.
Necessary Life Functions
4- Digestion
• Digestion is the breaking down of ingested foodstuffs to simple
molecules that can be absorbed into the blood. The nutrient-rich
blood is then distributed to all body cells by the cardiovascular
system.
Necessary Life Functions
5- Metabolism
• Metabolism “a state of change” is a broad term that includes all chemical reactions that occur within body
cells.
• It includes:
1- breaking down substances into their simpler building blocks (more specifically, the process of catabolism),
2- synthesizing more complex cellular structures from simpler substances (anabolism), and
3- using nutrients and oxygen to produce (via cellular respiration) ATP, the energy-rich molecules that power
cellular activities.
• Metabolism depends on the digestive and respiratory systems to make nutrients and oxygen available to
the blood and on the cardiovascular system to distribute them throughout the body.
• Metabolism is regulated largely by hormones secreted by endocrine system glands.
Necessary Life Functions
6- Excretion
• Excretion is the process of removing wastes, or excreta from the body.
• Several organ systems participate in excretion. For example, the digestive
system rids the body of indigestible food residues in feces, and the urinary
system disposes of nitrogen-containing metabolic wastes, such as urea.
Carbon dioxide, a by-product of cellular respiration, is carried in the blood
to the lungs, where it leaves the body in exhaled air.
Necessary Life Functions
7- Reproduction
• Reproduction occurs at the cellular and the organismal level.
• In cellular reproduction, the original cell divides, producing two identical
daughter cells that may then be used for body growth or repair.
• Reproduction of the human organism, a whole new person, is the major task of
the reproductive system.
• When a sperm unites with an egg, a fertilized egg forms and develops into a baby
within the mother’s body.
• It is under the hormonal control
Necessary Life Functions
8- Growth
• Growth is an increase in size of a body part or the organism as a
whole.
• It is usually accomplished by increasing the number of cells.
However, individual cells also increase in size when not dividing.
Survival needs
• Survival needs, include
• nutrients (food),
• oxygen,
• water,
• appropriate temperature and
• atmospheric pressure.
Thank you