By Antranik December 3, 2011Posted in: Anatomy, Science All right, so were going to run through the respiratory system in this article. Before we get into the anatomy, lets go over the basic functions. The respiratory system supplies the body with oxygen and disposes of carbon dioxide. There are four processes involved with respiration.
Pulmonary ventilation is the air being moved in and out of the lungs. External respiration is the gas exchange in the alveoli. Transport of respiratory gases occurs via the cardiovascular system. Internal respiration is the gas exchange that occurs at the capillaries and intercellular tissues.
The organs of the respiratory system are divided into the conducting zone and respiratory zone. The conductive zone carries, filters, humidifies and warms incoming air. The respiratory zone is the site where the actual gas exchange occurs. We will start with the conductive zone and then as things get smaller, we will eventually hit the respiratory zone.
Okay so heres our guy above. On the right is our nose structure to show whats inside our skin. You already know the frontal bone with the epicranius that sits on top of it. Theres a nasal bone split into two that is going to make the bridge of your nose. Fill these bones with cartilage and you have yourself a nose. The tip/point of your nose has an official name called the apex of nose. In between your nose and your lips is the philtrum while the ala is that section that flares out. Okay, moving on
Anatomy of Upper Respiratory Tract (above): Air is going to come into the nasal cavity and pass through the nasal conchae which is covered in mucosa. Were going to produce mucous in there to trap things like dust or bacteria to prevent them from getting in any further. We would normally have divided this in half with the nasal septum but in this particular view they have removed the nasal septum and were looking at the left side of the nose from the right. The pharynx is long and divided into 3 parts. The part thats behind the nose is called the nasopharynx. The part behind the mouth is the oropharynx. The part behind the larynx is the laryngopharynx. If we continue down there we have the esophagus. If we go in front of the pharynx we have the larynx where we have vocal cords in there. In the larynx is where you see the epiglottis at the top and trachea below it.
loalveolar glands that contain mucous and serous cells. The mucous contains lysozymes which destroy bacteria. Up to a quart of mucous is produced per day.
This is our voice box. The larynx is made of 9 specially shaped cartilages that are connected by ligaments. Lets start with the hyoid bone. On top of it are some of the muscles of the tongue.
Going below the hyoid bone we find a large cartilage in the front called the thyroid cartilage. This is what sticks out more in men than the ladies. The official name for the Adams apple is the laryngeal prominence. Below that we have another piece of cartilage called the cricoid cartilage. Below that is the trachea which we will get into later.
Above is a side view. Here you could see the front part of the thyroid cartilage. The cricoid cartilage is actually a complete ring. The epiglottis is like a flap that sticks diagonally upwards, anchored in the front by the thyroid cartilage and the upper part is sort of free. And were going to have a bunch of other little cartilages which are all movable and remember were only seeing one half. The cuneiform cartilage is actually two pieces on each side and cuneiform means wedge shaped. Corniculate cartilage has a horn shape, with that root word corn or corny. And we also see the arytenoid cartilage. Arytenoid means cup like or ladle like shape, and it does look that way.
tem. So in other words, when you swallow, whether its mucous or food, remember we have the pharynx and esophagus behind this larynx, so what happens is the front part of the epiglottis is going to get pushed upward, causing the epiglottis to flop down and cover the opening to the trachea. Right now you could touch your Adams apple, swallow, and you will feel your Adams apple dramatically rise up for a moment.
The pointy part is the front. Theres our cricoid cartilage, which is inferior to the thyroid cartilage. Look at these little pink slips in the middle: These are little vocal ligaments that are very elastic and these are your actual vocal cords. They aim anteriorly to attach to the thyroid cartilage. The glottis is the space taken up by the vocal cords, including the empty space when they are far apart. Top Left annd Top Right photos for above: When you see the arytenoid cartilage is in this position , the vocal cords are very close together but when they are apart, look how far they move on the right side. There are little muscles attached to the arytenoid cartilage that moves them. So if you tug on the posterior portion of the carytenoid cartilage putting them together, the vocal liga-
ments move apart. This is to allow a lot of air through, which is what sound is made of. A lot of your voice production is from changing the length, positioning, tension of the cords, very much the same way you would tune a string instrument like a violin or cello. You could tighten the strings and change the pitch. You dont have knobs to turn, instead you have little cartilages that move and these muscles that can move them in very subtle ways. So that is your basic structure. Bottom Left and Bottom Right photos for above: If we overlay a bunch of mucosa all over this cartilage structure, we get this structure that looks like well.. looks like a vagina doesnt? The true vocal cords/vocal folds are white. The vocal ligaments are covered in avascular mucosal tissue meaning they dont have blood vessels and thats why they are illustrated in white. The rest of the area is well vasculated so thats why thats pink. Immediately lateral to those cords are these vestibular folds which are also known as the false vocal cords (no idea why they have that name to confuse the matter more, vestibular folds was good enough). Its just a fold of extra mucosa, and while it doesnt function in the way the vocal cords do in the production of sound and sound waves, you do get some functions that modulate the sounds and theres also an additional function: to help completely seal the airway on purpose. For example, theres this thing you could do called a valsalva maneuver, like when youre straining to poop, if you close the airway from the top, it helps seal the opening at the top, so it increases the intraabdominal and intrathoracic pressure on the inside. Because think about it when youre constipated and youre pushing, youre holding your breath, right? Thats the valsalva maneuvar and the vestibular folds (innervated by vagus nerve) are what help fully seal that area.
give you a deeper voice because the longer cords vibrate more slowly than shorter cords. So in general, men have deeper voices than women because of this lengthened thyroid cartilage.
The Trachea
This is our next level down from the larynx, made up of 1620 C-shaped hyaline cartilage rings. In between them we are going to have fibroelastic connective tissue (which is great for breathing cause we wanna expand a bit). These cartilage rings prevent collapse so that you dont have to re-inflate this tube on top of having to take a breath, so youre always able to breathe easily.
So here we go. Keep in mind the ring is not a full circle, its like a horse-shoe shape. In the posterior part where its incomplete were going to put a muscle right there. Thats a trachealis muscle which is a smooth muscle and when you cough or sneeze this muscle contracts rapidly to really accelerate that air to 100mph, to try to get whatever is bothering you, out of your body. So coughing and sneezing is really a protective mechanism. Of course we have a mucosa layer lining this pseudostratified ciliated epithelium where the cilia sweep upwards. At the carina of the trachea (the very bottom of the trachea, where the trachea splits) the mucosa is extra sensitive to irritants and often triggers the cough reflex. In the nasal cavity, the cilia pushes down toward the larynx and below the level of the larynx, youre going down into the lungs, you want to push everything up so it doesnt go into your lungs, up and over the top One of the specific mechanisms that are damaged from smoking is the
damage to this cilia. Thats why smokers are more prone to getting colds or pneumonia cause things just sort of hang out in the lungs instead of getting pushed out.
First we start with cartilage rings, then they dont go so far around and theyre called cartilage plates then theres not gonna be anymore cartilage. As for the cell type, we start off with Ciliated peudostratified columnar on the top then Ciliated simple columnar, Ciliated simple cuboidal, Simple cuboidal (no more cilia nor mucous-producing goblet cells) The trachialis smooth muscle changes from only a posterior location to an encircling location and thins out at the terminal bronchioles. Smooth muscle is controlled by the autonomic nervous system: so of course a nerve from the parasympathetic and sympathetic system is going to innervate it to create a different effect. When youre gearing up for fight or flight (sympathetic shit) what are you going to need in terms of oxygen? LOTS OF IT. So the airways widen. The adrenal medulla releases epinephrine and norepinephrine which are smooth muscle relaxants. so the smaller branches are going to widen. Under the parasympathetic stimulation, the ACh is released which constricts the airways in case you dont need so much air (rest and digest).
Now you could see smooth muscle wrapping around. At the ends of the respiratory bronchioles we have these alveoli and a cluster of them is the alveolar sac. The alveolar duct is the name of the next branch after the bronchioles. As we move into this microscopic level, if we had kept columnar cells, it would take too long for oxygen to diffuse. So that is why we have squamous epithelia present, but it transitions from columnar to cuboidal to squamous. Theres 300 million of these individual alveoli:
The following pictures shows how these capillaries wrap around each of these alveoli so they could reach the oxygen:
Pleurae
A pleura is a the thin covering that protects and cushions the lungs. Pleurae is plural for pleura. Here is a cross section below of the pleural cavity by looking down into the thorax. Note the heart, the left lung and right lung, the left bronchus and right bronchus. Theres blood vessels running along those branches. So that gives you an idea of the setup. And oh look at the pleural cavity, what kind of membrane is the pleural cavity surrounded by? Serous Membrane! Remember the parietal layer is what lines the cavity and the visceral layer covers organs. So in this case the visceral pleura covers the lungs while the visceral layer of the pericardial membrane covers the heart. And remember theres a little bit of fluid in a serous membrane, so the lungs can easily glide against the rib cage.
Gaseous exchange between the blood and air takes place in the alveoli, but the detailed structure of the alveolar walls cannot be resolved with the light microscope.
This shows a photograph of a section of adult lung. You should be able to recognise the terminal bronchioles, respiratory bronchioles, alveolar ducts and alveolar sacs, together with blood vessels. The respiratory bronchioles have single alveoli off their walls. The epithelium is ciliated cuboidal epithelium and contains some secretory cells called clara cells. The respiratory bronchioles lead into alveolar ducts, (which are surrounded by smooth muscle, elastin and collagen), which lead into the alveolar sacs. These have several alveoli, surrounded by blood vessels - from the pulmonary system. This is a cross section through the lung, showing alveolar sacs, and alveoli
This is a section through the lung at higher magnification, showing the thin type I pneumocytes, and the type II pneumocytes. Notice how the type II pneumocytes look shorter and fatter, and have paler staining nuclei. Macrophages are also present.
Alveoli
The epithelium of the alveoli, contains two main types of cells: 1. type I pneumocytes: large flattened cells - (95% of the total alveolar area) which present a very thin diffusion barrier for gases. They are connected to each other by tight junctions. 2. type II pneumocytes (making up 5% of the total alveolar area, but 60% of total number of cells). These cells secrete 'surfactant' which decreases the surface tension between the thin alveolar walls, and stops alveoli collapsing when you breathe out. these cells are connected to the epithelium and other constituent cells by tight junctions. The surfactant is made up of phospholipids, combined with carbohydrate and protein, which are released by exocytosis, and form a tubular lattice of lipoprotein. The surfactant overcomes surface tension, where the two alveolar surfaces come together. Otherwise the two thin alveolar walls might stick together, rather like a balloon that is deflated, after being inflated. Macrophages are important for ingesting bacteria and particles, and arise from monocytes, which have escaped from the blood capillaries. This diagram shows the main constituents of alveolus, and the interalveolar wall. The thickness of the alveolar-capillary barrier varies from 0.2 to 2.5 m. The wall of the capillary endothelial cell is fused to that of the alveolar cell with only a very thin basement membrane between these two cells. This produces a very narrow gap across which oxygen and carbon dioxide can rapidly diffuse.