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Regulating the internal

environment
Mechanisms of homeostasis moderate
changes in the internal environment
The internal environment of
vertebrates is called the
interstitial fluid (ISF).
It exchanges nutrients and wastes
with blood contained in microscopic
vessels called capillaries.
Our bodies control the pH of our
blood and interstitial fluid to within a
tenth of a pH unit of 7.4.

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There are times when major changes

in the internal environment are
programmed to occur.
ex. puberty and pregnancy.

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Homeostasis depends on
feedback circuits
- receptor detects a change in some
variable in the animals internal
environment
- control center processes the
information it receives from the
receptor
- effector carries out the appropriate
response

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Negative-feedback system: a
change in the variable being
monitored triggers the control
mechanism to counteract further
change in the same direction.
This prevents small changes from
becoming too large.
Most homeostatic mechanisms in
animals operate on this principle of
negative feedback.
e.g. temperature regulation

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Positive feedback: a change in a

variable that trigger mechanisms
that amplify rather than reverse
the change.
During childbirth, the pressure of the
babys head against opening of the
uterus stimulates uterine
contractions.
These cause greater pressure
against the uterine opening,
heightening the contractions, which
cause still greater pressure.
Positive feedback brings childbirth to
completion (not maintenance of a
steady state).

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In addition,
regulated change is essential to
normal body functions.
e.g. hormone levels responsible for
the menstrual cycle
e.g. the human body reacts to
certain infections by raising the set
point for temperature to a slightly
higher level, and the resulting fevers
helps fight infection.

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Animals use a considerable

portion of their energy from the
food they eat to maintain
favorable internal conditions.
Require chemical energy for growth,
physiological processes, maintenance
and repair, regulation, and
reproduction.
Food also contains organic molecules
synthesized by other organisms.

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Food is digested by enzymatic

hydrolysis, and energy-containing
food molecules are absorbed by body
cells.
Food is used to generate ATP by the
catabolic processes of cellular
respiration and fermentation.
ATP powers cellular work
Production and use of ATP generates
heat so an animal must continuously
lose heat to its surroundings.

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Food molecules can be used

in biosynthesis.
- body growth and repair
- synthesis of storage material such as
fat
- production of gametes.

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Biosynthesis requires
a) carbon skeletons for new structures
b) ATP

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The amount of energy an animal

uses in a unit of time is called its
metabolic rate - the sum of all the
energy-requiring biochemical
reactions occurring over a given
time interval.
Measured in calories (cal) or
kilocalories (kcal).
A Calorie(Cal) is actually a
kilocalorie.

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Rate of
food consumption and the energy
content of food can be used to
estimate metabolic rate.
Gram of protein or carbohydrate
contains about 4.5-5 kcal
Gram of fat contains 9 kcal.
This method must account for the
energy in food that cannot be used

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by the animal (the energy lost in

feces and urine).

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H
umans are mainly endothermic,

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maintaining their body

temperature at a certain level
with heat generated by
metabolism.
Endothermy is a high-energy
strategy that permits intense, longduration activity in a wide range of
environmental temperatures.

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Adjust metabolic
rates as conditions change.
Minimal rates power the basic
functions that support life, such as
cell maintenance, breathing, and
heartbeat.
Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the
metabolic rate of a nongrowing
endotherm at rest, with an empty
stomach, and experiencing no
stress.
BMR for humans averages about

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1600 - 1800 kcal/d for adult males

1300 - 1500 kcal/d for adult females.

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Activity has a large effect on

metabolic rate.
Any behavior consumes energy
beyond the BMR.
Maximal metabolic rates occur
during peak activity, such as lifting
heavy weights, all-out running, or
high-speed swimming.

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Animal's maximum possible

metabolic rate is inversely related
to the duration of activity.
Human capable of intense exercise
in short spurts of a minute or less.
Powered by the ATP present in
muscle cells and ATP generated
anaerobically by glycolysis.
Humans cannot maintain their
maximum metabolic rates and peak
activity levels over longer periods of
exercise
- endotherm has an advantage in
endurance tests.

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Many factors influence energy

requirements.
age
gender
size
body and environmental
temperatures
activity level
hormonal balance
time of day.
Humans in most developed
countries have an unusually low
average daily metabolic rate of about
1.5 times BMR
- this is an indication of relatively
sedentary lifestyles

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CHAPTER 41
ANIMAL NUTRITION
A nutritionally adequate diet
satisfies three needs:
1. fuel (chemical energy) for all the
cellular work of the body;
2. the organic raw materials animals
use in biosynthesis (carbon skeletons
to make many of their own
molecules);
3. essential nutrients, substances
that the animals cannot make for
itself from any raw material and
therefore must obtain in food in
prefabricated form.

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Production of ATP accounts for

the largest fraction by far of the
energy budget of most animals.

ATP required for

a) basal or resting metabolism
b) activity
c) temperature regulation.

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ATP is derived from oxidation of

organic fuel molecules carbohydrates, proteins, and fats - in
cellular respiration.

Priority is usually given to

carbohydrates and fats.
Fats are especially rich in energy,
liberating about twice the energy
liberated from an equal amount of
carbohydrate or protein during
oxidation.

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When an animal takes in more

calories than it needs to produce
ATP, the excess can be used for
biosynthesis.
This biosynthesis can be used to
a) grow in size
b) for reproduction
c) stored in energy depots.
In humans, the liver and muscle cells
store energy as glycogen.
Glucose metabolism is regulated by
hormone action (insulin and
glucagon)
If glycogen stores are full and
caloric intake still exceeds caloric
expenditure, the excess is usually
stored as fat.

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The pancreas uses the hormones

insulin and glucagon to signal distant
cells to take up or release glucose to
regulate levels in the blood.

Generally liver glycogen is used first,

and then muscle glycogen and fat.
Most healthy people - even if they
are not obese - have enough stored
fat to sustain them through several
weeks of starvation.

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The average humans energy needs

can be fueled by the oxidation of
only 0.3 kg of fat per day.Severe
problems occur if the energy
budget remains out of balance
for long periods.
undernourishment: the diet of a
person is chronically deficient in
calories
a) stores of glycogen and fat are
used up
b) body begins breaking down its
own proteins for fuel
c) muscles begin to decrease in size
d) brain can become proteindeficient.
If energy intake remains less than
energy expenditure

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a) death will eventually result

b) even if a seriously undernourished
person survives, some damage may
be irreversible.

Undernourishment occurs
a) when drought, war, or some other
crisis has severely disrupted the food
supply.
b) in anorexia nervosa, an eating
disorder associated with a compulsive
aversion to body fat.

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overnourishment, or obesity: the

result from excessive food intake,
is a common problem in the
United States and other affluent
nations.
Human body tends to store any
excess fat molecules obtained from
food instead of using them for fuel.
In contrast, when we eat an excess
of carbohydrates, the body tends to
increase its rate of carbohydrate
oxidation.

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Fat hoarding can be a liability today,

but it probably provided a fitness
advantage for our hunting/gathering
ancestors, enabling individuals with
genes promoting the storage of highenergy molecules during feasts to
survive the eventual famines.
- the human body seems to impose
limits on weight gain (or loss).
Some people remain at a more-orless constant weight no matter how
much they eat.

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Most dieters return to their former

weight soon after they stop dieting.

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Hormones regulate long-term and

short-term appetite by affecting a
satiety center in the brain
Studies on mice revealed that the
hormone leptin plays an important
role in regulating obesity
Leptin is produced by adipose tissue
and can help to suppress appetite
and to increase energy-consuming
muscular activity and body-heat
production
Loss of body fat decreases leptin
levels in the blood, signaling the
brain to increase appetite and
weight gain.

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Other hormonal regulation

Ghrelin is secreted from the stomach
wall and signals feelings of hunger.
PYY (peptide YY) secreted by the small
intestine after meals will also act as
an appetite suppressant.
These feedback mechanisms
regulate body weight around a fairly
rigid set point in some individuals
and over a relatively wide range in
others.