Name: Kidney as the Body Filter
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 4 min 4 s
Description: The kidney is the waste manager of our body. Let us look inside the kidney and understand how this wondrous filtration system works. Watch the video now.

Question

How are oxygen and carbon dioxide transported in human beings? How are lungs designed to maximize the area for exchange of gases?

Accepted Answer

As oxygen-rich air enters the lungs, it reaches into the alveolar sac. The difference in the partial pressure of oxygen between the alveolar sac and the blood capillaries allows the diffusion of oxygen into the blood. Oxygen diffuses into the RBC and combines loosely with the iron pigment of haemoglobin to form oxyhaemoglobin. In the tissue capillaries, oxyhaemoglobin dissociates to release molecular oxygen due to low partial pressure of oxygen inside the tissue.

Carbon dioxide is more soluble in water than oxygen. It is mostly transported in the dissolved form in our blood. Carbon dioxide-rich blood is called deoxygenated blood. The partial pressure of carbon dioxide is more in the tissues; therefore, it is carried out from it through the blood capillaries. Since this partial pressure is more in the blood capillaries than the alveolar sac, the gas is released out from the blood capillaries into the air sac which is exhaled out from the nose.

The lungs are a pair of spongy and air-filled organs located on the side of the chest called the thorax. The alveoli are the functional unit of the lungs. They increase the surface area for the exchange of gases between the blood and air, which makes the process of respiration more efficient.

How are oxygen and carbon dioxide transported in human beings? How are lungs designed to maximize the area for exchange of gases?

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