Marieb Human Anatomy & Physiology (Twelfth Edition) - Chapters 1, 2, and 3

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards created from Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Marieb Human Anatomy & Physiology (Twelfth Edition).

Anatomy

The study of the structure of body parts and their relationships to one another.

Physiology

The study of the function of the body and how body parts work to carry out life-sustaining activities.

Reference male

A healthy, young male weighing about $155\,lb$ ($70\,kg$), used as a standardized reference value in anatomical study.

Reference female

A healthy, young female weighing about $125\,lb$ ($57\,kg$), used as a standardized reference value in anatomical study.

Gross (macroscopic) anatomy

The study of large body structures visible to the naked eye, encompassing regional, systemic, and surface anatomy.

Microscopic anatomy

The study of body structures too small to be seen with the naked eye, which includes cytology (cells) and histology (tissues).

Palpation

An essential anatomical examination tool that involves feeling organs with your hands.

Auscultation

An essential anatomical examination tool that involves listening to organs with a stethoscope.

Principle of complementarity of structure and function

The core anatomical concept stating that function always reflects structure, meaning what a structure can do depends on its specific form.

Integumentary System

The organ system that forms the external body covering, protects deeper tissues, synthesizes vitamin D, and houses cutaneous receptors and sweat/oil glands.

Skeletal System

The organ system that protects and supports body organs, provides a framework for muscle movement, forms blood cells within bones, and stores minerals.

Muscular System

The organ system that allows manipulation of the environment, locomotion, and facial expression, maintains posture, and produces heat.

Nervous System

The fast-acting control system of the body that responds to internal and external changes by activating appropriate muscles and glands.

Endocrine System

The organ system consisting of glands that secrete hormones to regulate processes such as growth, reproduction, and nutrient use (metabolism) by body cells.

Lymphatic System/Immunity

The organ system that picks up fluid leaked from blood vessels and returns it to blood, disposes of debris, houses lymphocytes, and mounts attacks against foreign substances.

Reproductive System

The organ system whose overall function is the production of offspring, containing testes or ovaries and associated ducts/glands.

Contractility

The specific ability of a muscle cell to cause movement by shortening.

Metabolism

All chemical reactions that occur in body cells, including catabolism, anabolism, and cellular respiration.

Homeostasis

The maintenance of relatively stable internal conditions despite continuous changes in the external environment.

Law of mass balance

The principle of steady state stating that the total amount of a substance the body takes in must equal the amount it loses to keep total body levels constant.

Negative feedback mechanism

The primary homeostatic control mechanism in which the output reduces or shuts off the original stimulus, driving the variable in the opposite direction back to its set point.

Positive feedback mechanism

A homeostatic control mechanism in which the response enhances or exaggerates the original stimulus, causing the variable to change in the same direction.

Feedforward response

A physiological response that occurs in anticipation of a change to the internal environment, such as salivation at the smell of food.

Anatomical position

The standard body reference position where the body is erect, feet slightly apart, and palms face forward with thumbs pointing away from the body.

Frontal (coronal) plane

A vertical body plane that divides the body or organ into anterior (front) and posterior (back) parts.

Dorsal body cavity

The internal closed body cavity protecting the nervous system, subdivided into the cranial cavity (encasing brain) and vertebral cavity (encasing spinal cord).

Serosa (serous membrane)

A thin, double-layered membrane lining walls of ventral body cavities (parietal) and covering internal organs (visceral), separated by lubricating serous fluid.

Abdominopelvic quadrants

The four clinical subdivisions of the abdominopelvic cavity: Right Upper Quadrant (RUQ), Left Upper Quadrant (LUQ), Right Lower Quadrant (RLQ), and Left Lower Quadrant (LLQ).

Abdominopelvic regions

The nine anatomical subdivisions of the abdominopelvic cavity delineated by four planes, including umbilical, epigastric, pubic, inguinal, lateral, and hypochondriac regions.

Kinetic energy

Energy in action.

Potential energy

Stored energy that has the capacity to do work but is currently inactive.

Major elements of the body

The four elements that make up $96.3\%$ of body mass: Oxygen ($65.0\%$), Carbon ($18.5\%$), Hydrogen ($9.5\%$), and Nitrogen ($3.3\%$).

Atomic number

The number of protons in an atom's nucleus, written as a subscript to the left of its atomic symbol.

Mass number

The total number of protons and neutrons in an atom's nucleus, written as a superscript to the left of its atomic symbol.

Isotopes

Structural variations of the same element that contain the same number of protons but differ in the number of neutrons.

Radioisotopes

Isotopes that decompose spontaneously to more stable forms, emitting detectable radioactivity.

Solution

A homogeneous mixture containing very tiny solute particles that are evenly distributed and do not settle out or scatter light.

Molarity ($M$)

A measure of solution concentration defined as the number of moles of solute per liter of solvent.

Colloid (emulsion)

A heterogeneous mixture with solute particles larger than in a solution that scatter light but do not settle out, often undergoing sol-gel transformations.

Suspension

A heterogeneous mixture containing large, visible solutes that settle out over time, such as blood cells in plasma.

Octet rule (rule of eights)

The chemical principle that atoms tend to gain, lose, or share electrons to achieve a full outer shell of 8 valence electrons.

Free radicals

Highly reactive atoms or molecules containing one or more unpaired electrons in their outermost energy level.

Ionic bond

A chemical bond formed by the complete transfer of valence shell electrons between atoms, creating oppositely charged anions and cations that attract.

Covalent bond

A chemical bond formed when two atoms share pairs of valence shell electrons, which can yield single, double, or triple bonds.

Polar covalent bond

A covalent bond in which electrons are shared unequally between atoms, giving one end a partial negative charge ($\delta^-$) and the other a partial positive charge ($\delta^+$).

Hydrogen bond

A weak magnetic attraction between an electropositive hydrogen atom of one molecule and an electronegative atom of another molecule.

Synthesis (combination) reaction

An anabolic reaction in which smaller atoms or molecules combine to form a larger, more complex molecule ($A + B \rightarrow AB$).

Decomposition reaction

A catabolic reaction in which a molecule is broken down into smaller molecules or constituent atoms ($AB \rightarrow A + B$).

Oxidation-reduction (redox) reaction

A reaction in which electrons are transferred between reactants; the electron donor is oxidized and the electron acceptor is reduced.

Exergonic reaction

A chemical reaction that results in a net release of energy.

Endergonic reaction

A chemical reaction that results in a net absorption of energy.

Catalysts

Substances that increase the speed of chemical reactions without being chemically changed or consumed.

Dehydration synthesis

An anabolic chemical reaction in which monomers are joined covalently by removing a molecule of water.

Hydrolysis reaction

A catabolic chemical reaction in which polymers are broken down into monomers by adding a molecule of water.

Monosaccharides

Simple sugars containing 3 to 7 carbon atoms with the general formula $(\text{CH}_2\text{O})_n$, serving as carbohydrate monomers.

Triglycerides

Fats and oils composed of three fatty acid chains bound to a single glycerol molecule by dehydration synthesis.

Phospholipids

Modified triglycerides composed of a glycerol, two fatty acids, and a phosphate group, featuring a polar hydrophilic head and nonpolar hydrophobic tails.

Primary structure of a protein

The specific linear sequence of amino acids forming a polypeptide chain.

Fibrous (structural) proteins

Strandlike, water-insoluble, highly stable proteins that provide mechanical support and tensile strength, such as collagen and keratin.

Protein denaturation

The process in which globular proteins unfold and lose their functional three-dimensional shape due to environmental changes like pH drops or temperature increases.

Activation energy

The amount of energy required to initiate a chemical reaction, which is lowered by biological enzymes.

Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)

An adenine-containing RNA nucleotide with two additional high-energy phosphate groups that directly powers cellular work.

Cell theory

The fundamental biological principle stating that the cell is the smallest unit of life, all organisms consist of one or more cells, and cells arise only from pre-existing cells.

Cell diversity

The presence of over 250 distinct human cell types differing in size, shape, and subcellular components to fulfill specialized functions.

Fluid mosaic model

The structural depiction of the plasma membrane as a dynamic phospholipid bilayer containing cholesterol, floating integral and peripheral proteins, and surface glycocalyx.

Glycocalyx

A carbohydrate-rich area on the cell surface formed by glycoproteins and glycolipids that acts as a biological marker for cell recognition.

Tight junctions

Impermeable intercellular junctions formed by fused integral proteins that prevent fluids and molecules from moving between cells.

Desmosomes

Anchoring intercellular junctions where cadherin linker proteins fit together like zipper teeth between membrane plaques to resist mechanical pulling.

Gap junctions

Communicating intercellular junctions consisting of transmembrane connexon channels that allow ions and small molecules to pass rapidly between cells.

Carrier-mediated facilitated diffusion

Passive transport of specific large or polar molecules via transmembrane carriers that envelope and undergo shape changes to release solutes.

Osmosis

The passive diffusion of solvent (water) across a selectively permeable membrane, passing through the lipid bilayer or aquaporin channels.

Tonicity

The ability of an extracellular solution to change the shape or membrane tension of cells by altering their internal water volume.

Sodium-potassium pump

A primary active transport enzyme ($\text{Na}^+\text{--}\text{K}^+$ ATPase) that pumps $3\,\text{Na}^+$ out of the cell and $2\,\text{K}^+$ into the cell per ATP molecule hydrolyzed.

Phagocytosis

A type of endocytosis ('cell eating') in which pseudopods flow around solid particles to form an internalized phagosome sac.

Exocytosis

The active vesicular transport process where secretory vesicles fuse with the plasma membrane using v-SNARE and t-SNARE binding proteins to release contents exteriorly.

Resting membrane potential (RMP)

The steady-state voltage (typically $-70\,mV$) across plasma membranes, established primarily by the diffusion of $\text{K}^+$ through leakage channels.

G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs)

Membrane receptors that indirectly initiate intracellular cascades by activating G proteins to alter effector proteins and release second messengers like cyclic AMP or $\text{Ca}^{2+}$.

Mitochondria

Double-membraned organelles with inner cristae folds that produce most of the cell's ATP through aerobic cellular respiration.

Golgi apparatus

A series of stacked, flattened membranous cisterns that modify, concentrate, sort, and package proteins and lipids produced in the rough ER.

Lysosomes

Spherical membranous organelle sacs containing digestive acid hydrolases to break down pathogens, damaged organelles, and cellular debris.

Peroxisomes

Membranous sacs containing oxidases and catalases that detoxify harmful free radicals and convert hydrogen peroxide to water.

Endomembrane system

An interconnected system of membranous organelles (ER, Golgi, vesicles, lysosomes, nuclear/plasma membranes) that produce, store, and export molecules.

Microtubules

The largest cytoskeletal elements, composed of hollow tubulin subunit tubes that determine overall cell shape and serve as tracks for motor proteins.

Cilia

Whiplike, motile cellular extensions containing a '9 + 2' microtubule array that sweep in coordinated power and recovery strokes to move substances across cell surfaces.

Nuclear envelope

A double-membrane barrier enclosing the nucleoplasm, pierced by nuclear pores regulated by protein pore complexes.

Metaphase

The mitotic phase during which chromosomes align precisely along the metaphase plate at the cell's equator.

Transcription

The process in which the genetic code on a DNA gene template strand is copied into a complementary strand of pre-mRNA in the nucleus.

Codon

A specific three-base sequence on mRNA that codes for a particular amino acid or signals translation termination.

Translation

The process occurring at ribosomes where mRNA codons are decoded by tRNA anticodons to assemble amino acids into a polypeptide chain.

Autophagy

The self-eating process in which cells package unneeded or damaged organelles into autophagosomes for degradation by lysosomes.

Apoptosis

Programmed cell death initiated by mitochondrial chemical leaks that activate caspases to neatly degrade cell structures for phagocytosis.