BODY COMPOSITION AND FLUIDS -

MSB 103

Objectives:
Body fluid
•Composition
•Distribution
•Structure
•Function
•Metabolism of blood
•Hematological & immune Diagnostic Tests
BODY COMPOSITION
• Percentage of Fat, Bone and Muscle in Human bodies.

• The percentages of fat (body fat percentage) is of most interest

because it can be very helpful in judging health in addition to
body weight.

• Muscular tissue takes up less space than fat tissue

• Body composition and weight determines how lean we

appear.

• Two people at the same height and same body weight may
look completely different from each other because of different
body composition.
COMPOSITION OF BODYMASS
• Muscle,
• Bone,
• Skin
• Organs
• Fat
• Water (Body Fluids)
BODY MASS INDEX (BMI)
• This describes body’s weight relative to :
• Height, strongly correlating to total body
fat content in adults.
BODY FLUIDS
Refers to body fluids such as
• Tears
• Sweat
• Urine
• Gastric
• Intestinal fluids
• Saliva
• Various mucous discharges
• Synovial fluids
• Plasma
• Extracellular and intracellular fluids
BODY WATER

• A significant fraction of the human body is

water.
• The body water is distributed in different
compartments in the body.
 AMOUNT OF WATER IN THE BODY
About 60% of an average man body consists of
water.

This depends on:

•Degree of fatness
•Age
•Gender
VARIATION OF BODY WATER
• Child - 70% of body weight
• Average male - 60%
• Obese male - 50%
• Average female - 50%
• Obese female - 40%
Fat content at different body weights

WASTED AVERAGE OBESE

FAT 3.5 18.5 60.5
FFSOLIDS 6.5 10.5 13.5
TBW (KG) 23 31 36
TBM (KG) 33 60 90
ADIPOSE TISSUE
• Has much lower water content

• 10 – 30 % than other tissues except bone

• Lean muscle tissue contains about 70 -75% water.

• Blood contains 83% water

• Bone has 22% water.

• Water is the body's most essential nutrient.

WATER CONTENT REGULATION

• Content regulated , total volume of water in

body remains constant
• Kidneys primary regulator of water excretion
• Regulation processes
– Osmosis
– Osmolality
– Baroreceptors
• Learned behavior
SOURCES OF WATER

– Ingestion
– Cellular metabolism
ROUTES OF WATER LOSS
– Urine
– Evaporation
• Perspiration
• Respiratory passages
– Fecal
Fluid Compartments in the Body
The body water compartments

- Intracellular
- Extracellular
- Interstitial
- Plasma
- Trans cellular.
Intracellular Fluid (ICF)
 Comprises 2/3 of the body's water.
 If your body has 60% water, ICF is about 40% of your
weight.

 The ICF is primarily a solution of potassium and

organic anions, proteins etc. (Cellular Soup!).

 The cell membranes and cellular metabolism control

the constituents of this ICF.
 ICF is not homogeneous in your body.
 It represents a conglomeration of fluids from all the
different cells.
Extracellular Fluid (ECF)

is the remaining 1/3 of your body's water.

- ECF is about 20% of your weight.

- The ECF is primarily a NaCl and NaHCO3

solution.
The ECF is further subdivided into three sub compartments:

• Interstitial Fluid (ISF)

• surrounds the cells, but does not circulate.
• It comprises about 3/4 of the ECF.
• Plasma
- circulates as the extracellular component of blood.
- It makes up about 1/4 of the ECF.
• Trans cellular fluid
- is a set of fluids that are outside of the normal
compartments.
- These 1-2 liters of fluid make up the CSF,
Digestive Juices, Mucus, etc.
 1. T
P
2. r
l
3. a
40% x 70 kg = a
ISF, 10 L 4. n
28 L water s
5. s
m
a, 4L
6.
7.
1
L The 60-40-20
Intracellular
Water =40%
1. Extracellular=20% Rule:
60 % of body
weight is water
40% of body
weight is
intracellular
fluids
1. Total Body Water = 60% of weight
20% of body
weight is
extracellular
fluid
• All the body's fluid compartments are
in osmotic equilibrium (except for
transient changes).
• The ions and small solutes that
constitute the ECF are in equilibrium
with similar concentrations in each
sub compartment.

• The ECF volume is proportional to the

total Na content.
These forces control the exchange of water
and solutes between the

intracellular and extracellular fluids

•as well as between the

interstitial and the plasma compartments

of the ECF.
 Fluid and Solutes
Movement of the fluids and solutes within the
body depends upon both

• macroscopic forces like the pressure within a

blood vessel,

• microscopic forces that control the movement

of individual molecules as they cross
membranes.
 Extracellular Fluid Osmolality
• Osmolality
– Adding or removing water from a solution
changes osmolality

• Increased osmolality
– Triggers thirst and ADH secretion

• Decreased osmolality
– Inhibits thirst and ADH secretion
 Hormonal Regulation of
Blood Osmolality

Regulation of ECF Volume

• Mechanisms
– Neural
– Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone
– Atrial natriuretic hormone (ANH)
– Antidiuretic hormone (ADH)
 INCREASED ECF
• RESULTS in
– Decreased aldosterone secretion
– Increased ANH secretion
– Decreased ADH secretion
– Decreased sympathetic stimulation
 DECREASED ECF
• RESULTS in
– Increased aldosterone secretion
– Decreased ANH secretion
– Increased ADH secretion
– Increased sympathetic stimulation
DISTRIBUTION AND COMPOSITION OF BODY
FLUID COMPARTMENTS

RBC PLASMA WATER

4.5% 3L BONE
3% 2L

INTERSTITIAL
CELL WATER FLUID
ECF
36% 25 L COMPARTMENT 24% 17 L
DENSE CONNECTIVE
11.5% 8L
4.5% 3L
TRANSCELLULAR WATER

1.5% 1L
IONIC COMPOSITION OF BODY FLUIDS
 REGULATION OF BODY FLUID
Body-fluid osmolarity is regulated by hypothalamic Sensors.

Which detect osmolarity Effectors modify water handling (intake

and excretion).

Because water moves freely throughout the body fluids (crossing

vascular and cellular boundaries readily)

This system regulates

intracellular fluid (ICF)and ECF compartments as a single unit
the TBF compartment.

Thus, at steady state, the osmolarity of ICF and ECF are

always equal.
 DISORDERS
• When disorders of TBF osmolarity/water
regulation occur

• ICF and ECF osmolarity will both be altered.

MOVEMENT OF FLUID
• The movement of fluid and accompanying solutes between
compartments (mostly water, electrolytes, and smaller molecular
weight solutes) is governed by physical factors such as hydrostatic
and oncotic forces.
• These forces make the fluid volumes to remain relatively constant
between the compartments.
• If the physical forces or barriers to fluid movement are altered, the
volume of fluid may increase in one compartment and decrease in
another.
• In some cases, total fluid volume increases in the body so that both
intravascular and extravascular compartments increase in volume
FLUID MOVEMENT

- Fluid movement is caused primarily by the application of

pressure.
- In a macroscopic sense, the application of hydrostatic pressure
causes bulk flow, e.g. blood flowing through your artieries.
• Pressure also moves fluid at a microscopic level.
- Through pores within cell membranes, and between the cells,
pressure causes water and its dissolved particles to move.

- The amount of movement is equal to the pressure gradient, the

area, and the leakiness of the barriers.
• The random movement of particles in the presence of a
concentration gradient is called diffusion, which also acts as
a microscopic pressure that causes movement within
solutions and across membranes.

• The mechanism by which water and other solutes move

across cell membranes is reviewed here in the section on
membrane transport.

• Diffusion of water is called osmosis, which is another critical

microscopic pressure controlling fluid movement.
These forces control the exchange of water and
solutes between the

- intracellular and extracellular fluids

as well as between the

- interstitial and the plasma compartments of

the ECF.
Fluid and Solutes
• Movement of the fluids and solutes within the
body depends upon both

- macroscopic forces like the pressure within a

blood vessel,

- microscopic forces that control the movement

of individual molecules as they cross
membranes.
Exchange between Intracellular and
Extracellular Compartments:

The ICF and the ECF separated by the membranes of the body's cells.

The protein components of these membranes give them substantial

permeability to water while carefully controlling the permeability of selected
ions.

Cell membranes are flexible. If water flows into (out of) the cell, it expands
(contracts).

Hydrostatic pressure therefore does not play a significant role, and

osmosis results in flows rather than pressure.
In cells, osmotic flow would occur
- if there were an osmotic gradient between the
intracellular and extracellular fluids.

In the body, these two compartments are always in

osmotic equilibrium

- even though the composition of the fluids in them is

very different.

The addition or subtraction of water or solutes from one

or more of the body's fluid compartments

- results in water exchange between the ICF and the ECF

if there is an alteration in the resulting osmolarity.
 Plasma-Interstitial Fluid Exchange
• The aqueous solutions that compose the
plasma and the interstitial fluid exchange
readily through the thin walls of most
body's capillaries.

• The primary forces that govern this

exchange are hydrostatic pressure (the
blood pressure within the capillaries), and
osmosis.
HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE

There are two important and opposing hydrostatic forces:

– Capillary hydrostatic pressure (PC)

– Tissue hydrostatic pressure (PT).

PC is normally much greater than PT

Net hydrostatic pressure gradient across the capillary is

positive

Drives fluid out of the capillary and into the interstitial.

• The hydrostatic pressure in the capillaries is lower than
that of the arteries, and decreases along the length of
the capillary as blood flows through.

• At the arteriolar end of the capillary, the pressure is

usually about 35 mm Hg (due to the pressure drop
caused by the resistance arterioles).

• On the venule end of the capillary, the pressure is in

the range of 15 mm Hg.
 Osmotic forces in the capillaries:

• Because the capillary wall is permeable to water, but

essentially impermeant to the plasma proteins, these
molecules generate an osmotic pressure.

• since these proteins are negatively charged, they tend to

hold additional cations in the plasma (the Gibbs-Donnan
effect), further enhancing an osmotic gradient between
the plasma and the interstitial fluid.
The combined effect (osmotic and Gibbs-Donnan)
results in a pressure that draws water out of the
interstitium and into the plasma.

This pressure is known as the Colloid Oncotic Pressure

(often shortened to the Oncotic Pressure).
This pressure is proportional to the difference in
protein concentration between the plasma and the ISF.
Compared to pure saline, the plasma exerts about 28
mm Hg Oncotic pressure,
whereas the ISF has only about 3 mm Hg.
The net Oncotic Pressure is thus about 25 mm Hg.
This value remains roughly constant over the length of
most capillary beds.
 ONCOTIC PRESSURE
There are also two opposing oncotic pressures
influencing fluid exchange:
• Capillary plasma oncotic pressure (pC)
• Tissue (interstitial) oncotic pressure (pT).

-pC is much greater than pT, therefore the oncotic

pressure gradient across the capillary, If unopposed
by hydrostatic forces, would reabsorb fluid from
the interstitium into the capillary.