Unit 5 Reflection

There are many organs in the body that each regulate unique functions using hormones specific to itself. In Unit 5, we explored the major(ly packed) organs of the digestive system- see http://mesocy.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-digestive-system-lab.html- and also the wide range of hormones and their effects on counteracting conditions adverse to homeostasis.

Fasting State Poster

For example, we focused on the concentration of glucose in the blood, AKA blood sugar, and how it was affected by the diet that people consumed. See: http://mesocy.blogspot.com/2015/10/blood-pressure-virtual-lab.html
We differentiated it into three states: the Fed State, where a meal was just eaten; the Fasting State, where a meal has not been consumed for a few hours; and the Starvation State, in which the body's cells undergo autophagy, breaking down its proteins into energy sources in a desperate attempt to keep the cell functioning.





States occur in response to the concentration of blood sugar in the bloodstream. Since humans' blood sugar levels must be constantly maintained, as long as nutrients from the digestive system are anticipated, the pancreas will release insulin, which basically functions as a signal to remove glucose from the circulatory system as fast as possible. It signals a storage of glucose as a glycogen polysaccharide inside the liver and increase the intake of glucose by the body's various cells (mostly fat and muscle though) through promotion of a specific membrane protein, called GLUT-4. Usually GLUT-4 is stored inside the cell on a vesicle membrane, but in the presence of insulin, the vesicle fuses with the cell membrane and thus disseminates its proteins into the surrounding lipid bilayer. Now, when the blood sugar level decreases to a point where it is too low, the pancreas releases glucagon instead. Glucagon causes the stored glycogen polysaccharides to be broken down in the process of glycogenolysis for glucose, which can then be used for cellular respiration and, thus, energy. These ups and downs are simply represented on the left as double ringed, negative feedback loops.


I had a tough time in this unit memorizing all of the different organ, substance, and process names, and thus couldn't fulfill my objective of scrabbling together a nine hour sleep schedule. However, I have made progress on my SMART goal of studying, and have eliminated a few weaker strategies (e.g. outline format).
see: http://mesocy.blogspot.com/2016/01/smart-goals.html
I really would like to know why many organs have almost unintelligible, unrelated names, and why not change them, like the GLUT-4 protein. The number four seems to correspond with the affinity the integral transport protein has for insulin, and the GLUT portion is reminiscent of glucose-transferring protein. Just a thought.

Well, time to study for my AP Bio test tomorrow as well. Have a nice day!