List of distinct cell types in the adult human body

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

The lung is the essential respiration organ in air-breathing vertebrates, the most primitive being the lungfish. Its principal function is to transport oxygen from the atmosphere into the bloodstream, and to release carbon dioxide from the bloodstream into the atmosphere. This exchange of gases is accomplished in the mosaic of specialized cells that form millions of tiny, exceptionally thin-walled air sacs called alveoli. The lungs also have non respiratory functions.

Medical terms related to the lung often begin with pulmo-, from the Latin pulmonarius (“of the lungs”), or with pneumo- (from Greek πνεύμω “lung”)^[2][3]

Energy production from aerobic respiration requires oxygen and glucose and produces carbon dioxide as a waste product, creating a need for an efficient means of oxygen delivery to cells and excretion of carbon dioxide from cells. In small organisms, such as single-celled bacteria, this process of gas exchange can take place entirely by simple diffusion. In larger organisms, this is not possible; only a small proportion of cells are close enough to the surface for oxygen from the atmosphere to enter them through diffusion. Two major adaptations made it possible for organisms to attain great multicellularity: an efficient circulatory system that conveyed gases to and from the deepest tissues in the body, and a large, internalized respiratory system that centralized the task of obtaining oxygen from the atmosphere and bringing it into the body, whence it could rapidly be distributed to all the circulatory system.

In air-breathing vertebrates, respiration occurs in a series of steps. Air is brought into the animal via the airways — in reptiles, birds and mammals this often consists of the nose; the pharynx; the larynx; the trachea (also called the windpipe); the bronchi and bronchioles; and the terminal branches of the respiratory tree. The lungs of mammals are a rich lattice of alveoli, which provide an enormous surface area for gas exchange. A network of fine capillaries allows transport of blood over the surface of alveoli. Oxygen from the air inside the alveoli diffuses into the bloodstream, and carbon dioxide diffuses from the blood to the alveoli, both across thin alveolar membranes.

The drawing and expulsion of air is driven by muscular action; in early tetrapods, air was driven into the lungs by the pharyngeal muscles, whereas in reptiles, birds and mammals a more complicated musculoskeletal system is used. In the mammal, a large muscle, the diaphragm (in addition to the internal intercostal muscles), drive ventilation by periodically altering the intra-thoracic volume and pressure; by increasing volume and thus decreasing pressure, air flows into the airways down a pressure gradient, and by reducing volume and increasing pressure, the reverse occurs. During normal breathing, expiration is passive and no muscles are contracted (the diaphragm relaxes).

Another name for this inspiration and expulsion of air is ventilation. Vital capacity is the maximum volume of air that a person can exhale after maximum inhalation. A person’s vital capacity can be measured by a spirometer (spirometry). In combination with other physiological measurements, the vital capacity can help make a diagnosis of underlying lung disease.

In addition to respiratory functions such as gas exchange and regulation of hydrogen ion concentration, the lungs also:

• influence the concentration of biologically active substances and drugs used in medicine in arterial blood
• filter out small blood clots formed in veins
• serve as a physical layer of soft, shock-absorbent protection for the heart, which the lungs flank and nearly enclose.
• filter out gas micro-bubbles occurring in the venous blood stream during SCUBA diving decompression.^[4]

The lungs of mammals have a spongy texture and are honeycombed with epithelium having a much larger surface area in total than the outer surface area of the lung itself. The lungs of humans are typical of this type of lung.

Breathing is largely driven by the muscular diaphragm at the bottom of the thorax. Contraction of the diaphragm pulls the bottom of the cavity in which the lung is enclosed downward. Air enters through the oral and nasal cavities; it flows through the larynx and into the trachea, which branches out into bronchi. Relaxation of the diaphragm has the opposite effect, passively recoiling during normal breathing. During exercise, the diaphragm contracts, forcing the air out more quickly and forcefully. The rib cage itself is also able to expand and contract to some degree, through the action of other respiratory and accessory respiratory muscles. As a result, air is sucked into or expelled out of the lungs, always moving down its pressure gradient. This type of lung is known as a bellows lung as it resembles a blacksmith’s bellows.

In humans, the trachea divides into the two main bronchi that enter the roots of the lungs. The bronchi continue to divide within the lung, and after multiple divisions, give rise to bronchioles. The bronchial tree continues branching until it reaches the level of terminal bronchioles, which lead to alveolar sacks. Alveolar sacs are made up of clusters of alveoli, like individual grapes within a bunch. The individual alveoli are tightly wrapped in blood vessels, and it is here that gas exchange actually occurs. Deoxygenated blood from the heart is pumped through the pulmonary artery to the lungs, where oxygen diffuses into blood and is exchanged for carbon dioxide in the hemoglobin of the erythrocytes. The oxygen-rich blood returns to the heart via the pulmonary veins to be pumped back into systemic circulation.

Human lungs are located in two cavities on either side of the heart. Though similar in appearance, the two are not identical. Both are separated into lobes, with three lobes on the right and two on the left. The lobes are further divided into lobules, hexagonal divisions of the lungs that are the smallest subdivision visible to the naked eye. The connective tissue that divides lobules is often blackened in smokers and city dwellers. The medial border of the right lung is nearly vertical, while the left lung contains a cardiac notch. The cardiac notch is a concave impression molded to accommodate the shape of the heart. Lungs are to a certain extent ‘overbuilt’ and have a tremendous reserve volume as compared to the oxygen exchange requirements when at rest. This is the reason that individuals can smoke for years without having a noticeable decrease in lung function while still or moving slowly; in situations like these only a small portion of the lungs are actually perfused with blood for gas exchange. As oxygen requirements increase due to exercise, a greater volume of the lungs is perfused, allowing the body to match its CO₂/O₂ exchange requirements.

The environment of the lung is very moist, which makes it hospitable for bacteria. Many respiratory illnesses are the result of bacterial or viral infection of the lungs.

Avian lungs do not have alveoli, as mammalian lungs do, but instead contain millions of tiny passages known as para-bronchi, connected at both ends by the dorsobronchi and ventrobronchi. Air flows through the honeycombed walls of the para-bronchi and into air capillaries, where oxygen and carbon dioxide are traded with cross-flowing blood capillaries by diffusion, a process of crosscurrent exchange.

Avian lungs contain two sets of air sacs, one towards the front, and a second towards the back. Upon inspiration, air travels backwards into the rear (caudal) sac, and a small portion travels forward past the para-bronchi and oxygenating the blood into the cranial air sac. On expiration, deoxygenated air held in the cranial air sack is exhaled, and the still-oxygenated air stored in the caudal sack moves over the parabronchi and is exhaled, with some remaining in the cranial sac. The complex system of air sacs ensures that the airflow through the avian lung always travels in the same direction – posterior to anterior. This is in contrast to the mammalian system, in which the direction of airflow in the lung is tidal, reversing between inhalation and exhalation. By utilizing a unidirectional flow of air, avian lungs are able to extract a greater concentration of oxygen from inhaled air. Birds are thus equipped to fly at altitudes at which mammals would succumb to hypoxia, and this also allows them to sustain a higher metabolic rate than an equivalent weight mammal. Because of the complexity of the system, misunderstanding is common and it is incorrectly believed that that it takes two breathing cycles for air to pass entirely through a bird’s respiratory system. A bird’s lungs do not store air in either of the sacs between respiration cycles, air moves continuously from the posterior to anterior air sacs throughout respiration. This type of lung construction is called circulatory lungs as distinct from the bellows lung possessed by most other animals.

Reptilian lungs are typically ventilated by a combination of expansion and contraction of the ribs via axial muscles and buccal pumping. Crocodilians also rely on the hepatic piston method, in which the liver is pulled back by a muscle anchored to the pubic bone (part of the pelvis), which in turn pulls the bottom of the lungs backward, expanding them.

The lungs of most frogs and other amphibians are simple balloon-like structures, with gas exchange limited to the outer surface area of the lung. This is not a very efficient arrangement, but amphibians have low metabolic demands and also frequently supplement their oxygen supply by diffusion across the moist outer skin of their bodies. Unlike mammals, which use a breathing system driven by negative pressure, amphibians employ positive pressure. Note that the majority of salamander species are lung-less salamanders and conduct respiration through their skin and the tissues lining their mouth.

Some invertebrates have “lungs” that serve a similar respiratory purpose, but are not evolutionarily related to, vertebrate lungs. Some arachnids have structures called “book lungs” used for atmospheric gas exchange. The Coconut crab uses structures called branchiostegal lungs to breathe air and indeed will drown in water, hence it breathes on land and holds its breath underwater. The Pulmonata are an order of snails and slugs that have developed “lungs”.

The lungs of today’s terrestrial vertebrates and the gas bladders of today’s fish have evolved from simple sacs (outpocketings) of the esophagus that allowed the organism to gulp air under oxygen-poor conditions. Thus the lungs of vertebrates are homologous to the gas bladders of fish (but not to their gills). This is reflected by the fact that the lungs of a fetus also develop from an outpocketing of the esophagus and in the case of gas bladders, this connection to the gut continues to exist as the pneumatic duct in more “primitive” teleosts, and is lost in the higher orders. (This is an instance of correlation between ontogeny and phylogeny.) There are currently no known animals which have both a gas bladder and lungs.

• Alveolar-capillary barrier
• Bronchus
• Bronchitis
• Pulmonology
• Lung volumes
• Cardiothoracic surgery
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Liquid breathing
• Mechanical ventilation
• Drowning
• Dry drowning
• Pneumothorax
• American Lung Association
• Left lung
• Right lung

• Template:McGrawHillAnimation
• Lung Function Fundamentals. http://www.anaesthetist.com/icu/organs/lung/lungfx.htm
• Dr D.R. Johnson: Introductory anatomy, respiratory system
• Franlink Institute Online: The Respiratory System
• Lungs ‘best in late afternoon’
• Chronic Respiratory Disease – leading research and articles on respiratory disease.

• Avian lungs and respiration

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

File:Neuroglia.png

Glial cells, commonly called neuroglia or simply glia (greek for “glue”), are non-neuronal cells that provide support and nutrition, maintain homeostasis, form myelin, and participate in signal transmission in the nervous system. In the human brain, glia are estimated to outnumber neurons by about 10 to 1.^[1]

Glial cells provide support and protection for neurons, the other main type of cell in the central nervous system. They are thus known as the “glue” of the nervous system. The four main functions of glial cells are to surround neurons and hold them in place, to supply nutrients and oxygen to neurons, to insulate one neuron from another, and to destroy pathogens and remove dead neurons.

Some glia function primarily as physical support for neurons. Others regulate the internal environment of the brain, especially the fluid surrounding neurons and their synapses, and provide nutrition to nerve cells. Glia have important developmental roles, guiding migration of neurons in early development, and producing molecules that modify the growth of axons and dendrites. Recent findings in the hippocampus and cerebellum have indicated that glia are also active participants in synaptic transmission, regulating clearance of neurotransmitter from the synaptic cleft, releasing factors such as ATP which modulate presynaptic function, and even releasing neurotransmitters themselves. Unlike the neuron, which is amitotic, glia are capable of mitosis.

Traditionally glia had been thought to lack certain features of neurons. For example, glia were not believed to have chemical synapses or to release neurotransmitters. They were considered to be the passive bystanders of neural transmission. However, recent studies disproved this. For example, astrocytes are crucial in clearance of neurotransmitter from within the synaptic cleft, which provides distinction between arrival of action potentials and prevents toxic build up of certain neurotransmitters such as glutamate (excitotoxicity). Furthermore, at least in vitro, astrocytes can release neurotransmitter glutamate in response to certain stimulation. Another unique type of glia, the oligodendrocyte precursor cells or OPCs, have very well defined and functional synapses from at least two major groups of neurons. The only notable differences between neurons and glia, by modern scrutiny, are the ability to generate action potentials and the polarity of neurons, namely the axons and dendrites which glia lack.

It is inappropriate nowadays to consider glia as ‘glue’ in the nervous system as the name implies but more of a partner to neurons. They are also crucial in the development of the nervous system and in processes such as synaptic plasticity and synaptogenesis. Glia have a role in the regulation of repair of neurons after injury. In the CNS glia suppress repair. Astrocytes enlarge and proliferate to form a scar and produce myelin and inhibitory molecules that inhibit regrowth of a damaged or severed axon. In the PNS Schwann cells promote repair. After axon injury Schwann cells regress to an earlier developmental state to encourage regrowth of the axon. This difference between PNS and CNS raises hopes for the regeneration of nervous tissue in the CNS, for example a spinal cord injury or severance.

Microglia are specialized macrophages capable of phagocytosis that protect neurons of the central nervous system. Though not technically glia because they are derived from hemopoietic precursors rather than ectodermal tissue, they are commonly categorized as such because of their supportive role to neurons.

These cells comprise approximately 15% of the total cells of the central nervous system. They are found in all regions of the brain and spinal cord. Microglial cells are small relative to macroglial cells, with changing shapes and oblong nuclei. They are mobile within the brain and multiply when the brain is damaged. In the healthy central nervous system, microglia processes constantly sample all aspects of their environment (neurons, macroglia and blood vessels).

Glia retain the ability to undergo cell division in adulthood, while most neurons cannot. The view is based on the general deficiency of the mature nervous system in replacing neurons after an insult or injury, such as a stroke or trauma, while very often there is a profound proliferation of glia, or gliosis near or at the site of damage. However, detailed studies found no evidence that ‘mature’ glia, such as astrocytes or oligodendrocytes, retain the ability of mitosis. Only the resident oligodendrocyte precursor cells seem to keep this ability after the nervous system matures. On the other hand, there are a few regions in the mature nervous system, such as the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the subventricular zone, where generation of new neurons can be observed.

Most glia are derived from ectodermal tissue of the developing embryo, particularly the neural tube and crest. The exception is microglia, which are derived from hemopoietic stem cells. In the adult, microglia are largely a self-renewing population and are distinct from macrophages and monocytes which infiltrate the injured and diseased CNS.

In the central nervous system, glia develop from the ventricular zone of the neural tube. These glia include the oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells, and astrocytes. In the peripheral nervous system, glia derive from the neural crest. These PNS glia include Schwann cells in nerves and satellite cells in ganglia.

Glia were discovered in 1856 by the pathologist Rudolf Virchow in his search for a ‘connective tissue’ in the brain.

The human brain contains about ten times more glial cells than neurons. ^[1] Following its discovery in the late 19th century, this fact underwent significant media distortion, emerging as the famous myth claiming that “we are using only 10% of our brain”. The role of glial cells as managers of communications in the synapse gap, thus modifying learning pace, has been discovered only very recently (2004).

• 
  Oligodendrocyte
• 
  Section of central canal of medulla spinalis, showing ependymal and neuroglial cells.
• 
  Transverse section of a cerebellar folium.

• Role of glia in synapse development
• Overstreet L (2005). “Quantal transmission: not just for neurons”. Trends Neurosci. 28 (2): 59–62. PMID 15667925. article
• Peters A (2004). “A fourth type of neuroglial cell in the adult central nervous system”. J Neurocytol. 33 (3): 345–57. PMID 15475689.
• Volterra A, Steinhäuser C (2004). “Glial modulation of synaptic transmission in the hippocampus”. Glia. 47 (3): 249–57. PMID 15252814.
• Huang Y, Bergles D (2004). “Glutamate transporters bring competition to the synapse”. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 14 (3): 346–52. PMID 15194115.
• New Source of Replacement Brain Cells Found – glial cells can transform into other cell types and reproduce indefinitely — tricks once thought exclusive to stem cells.
• Artist ADSkyler(uses concepts of neuroscience and found inspiration from Glia)

de:Gliazelle eo:Glia ĉelo eu:Glia io:Glia celulo it:Cellula della glia he:תאי גליה nl:Gliacel sk:Ependýmová bunka fi:Gliasolu sv:Gliacell th:เซลล์เกลีย uk:Нейроглія Template:Jb1 Template:WH Template:WS