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Transport in Animals

Chapter · January 1998

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 1

CHAPTER TEN
Transport In Animals

IITRODUCTION.
The transport system of animals moves substances from where they are deposit
to where they are required for metabolic and other physiological purposes. Transport
systems are necessary because diffusion through fluid system is such a slow process and
as such even single cells cannot rely on this process alone for the distribution 0:-
metabolic materials as quickly as they are required. Even the smallest animal must ha e
a means of transporting substances including food molecules, respiratory gases, waste
products etc. around its body. For instance, oxygen must move from the externa.:
environment into the body and to each cell for respiration. At the same time the waste
products of metabolism including carbon dioxide, water, heat energy,etc, must be
removed from the cells and released into the external environment. Food material
including salts, vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and oils, hormone, and metaboli
heat must be distributed from the digestive system or reserve tissues and the secretor:
tissues or cells to all the cells requiring them. A variety of fluid system often called
vascular systems, facilitate transport in most members of the animal kingdom.
The circulatory system therefore is a vascular system, in which the transport fluid
is the blood which moves rhythmically in a definite direction and is usually propelled b,
a muscular pumping structure, the heart.

TRANSPORT MECHANISMS.
Tiny animals and microscopic organisms have no need for an elaborate or special
transport system. In these groups of animals, diffusion, active transport and cytoplasmic
streaming are sufficient to ensure that every part of the body is adequately supplied with
metabolic materials. Digestion is intracellular and no portion of the body is far removed
from digested food materials thereby eliminating the necessity for extensive transport of
 135

these materials, as is the case with higher animals with separate digestive, circulatory,
excretory etc. systems.

CLOSEDn VERSUS nOPENn SYSTEM.

In arthropods such as the insect, the circulatory system differs from that
f the annelids such as earthworm and higher animals in one important respect.
The blood in the insect is confmed to vessels during only a portion of its circuit
:hrough the body. The remainder of its journey takes place within the body
cavity itself, the haemocoel. Such a system is known as an 'open' circulatory
stem (fig. 10.1). Here the blood referred to as haemolymph bathes all the
rgans and tissues directly, and exchange of materials takes place directly.

Hatmocotl

Fig. 10.1: Open Circulatory Heart of Insect.

the earthworm and higher animals the organisms are relatively large and
mplex. They possess elaborate circulatory systems for the transport of
terials, and all the features essential to an
efficient circulatory systems are
d in them. These include: .
 136

(i) afluid, the blood, in which the materials to be transported are dissolved,

(U) an extensive system of conducting vessels or channels (arteries, veins and

capillaries) in which the blood flows and which ramify to all parts of the
body.

(iii) a muscular pump, the heart, which pumps the transport fluid at high
speed and pressure through the extensive network of vessels, and

(iv) specialized organs to carry out exchanges between the fluid and the
external environment. The blood in these animals is transported by the
elaborate system of blood vessels and can carry on its function of
exchanging materials with individual cells, only when it passes through
the finest of the blood vessels, the capillaries. Because the blood is
always retained within the system of blood vessels, throughout its-circuit
through the body, they are said to have a "closed" system (fig. 10.2).

Dorsal Blood V~ss~1

AortCl V~ntra1 Blood VQSSQI

Fig. 10.2: Closed Circulatory Systems of Earthworm.

 The blood in the earthworm is mostly water in which are dissolved gases
(oxygen, and carbon dioxide), sugars, amino acids, salts, hormones and vitamins that
play a role in the metabolic processes of the. organism. The efficiency of this type of
blood system as a medium for oxygen transport is increased by the presence of the red
oxygen-carrying' pigment, haemoglobin. The major difference between the earthworm's
haemoglobin and the familiar mammals blood is that the haemoglobin of earthworm is
not contained within red blood cells as in the mammals', but is simply dissolved in the
blood.
In the insects and other arthropods, the efficiency of flow and distribution of the
blood is maintained by the haemocoel being divided into chambers called sinuses. The
closed portion of the system is confmed to a single long tubular heart and aorta running
along the dorsal side of the insect. The open circulatory system of the arthropods might
seem to be quite efficient in comparison with the closed system of the earthworm and
higher animals. There is a decided difference in the function accomplished by the two
systems. Th exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide is accomplished by the tracheal
~ystem in the insects and the blood plays no part in this process. There is not even' an
oxygen-carrying pigment m the blood of the insects. However, haemocyanin, the blue-
green blood pigment is confmed to lower animals (worms, molluscs and the like), and
is dissolved in the fluid plasma rather than enclosed within cells. The affmity of these
pigments for oxygen is comparable with haemoglobin, though their total oxygen capacity
is generally lower.
It is an established fact that it is the problem of respiratory gas transport that
poses the most serious demand upon a ~rculatory system. In the insects and many other
arthropods, where the gas-exchange system is quite independent of the circulatory system,
the demands upon the latter are far less severe than in higher animals where the functions
are combined.

Types of Ciradation.
The circulatory system in which the blood flows only once through the heart for
every complete circuit around the body is spoken of as a single circulation. This type
of circulation is found in the fish, insects and other arthropods. In higher vertebrates,
including most amphibians and all reptiles, the blood passes through the heart twice in
one full circuit around the body. The blood from the heart is pumped into the lungs from
where it returns to the heart before it is finally repumped to the body. This is spoken.
of as a double circulation. To prevent mixing of deoxygenated and oxygenated blood,
the heart is divided into right and left sides. The right side deals with deoxygenated blood
 138

and the left side with oxygenated blood. The heart is further divided into the upper and
lower chambers, the atrium and ventricle.

In insects the only blood vessel as such is a single long tubular heart which
extends through the thorax and abdomen and is expanded in each segment to form a small
chamber pierced by a pair of ostia. In this case the heart may be regarded as one-
chambered as there are no atria or ventricles (fig. 10.1). In fish, the heart contains one
atrium and one ventricle and is said to be two-chambered (fig. 10.3). In the amphibians
and reptiles, the hearts are not fully divided into right and left halves, rather there are two
atria but only one ventricle. This arrangement is spoken of as three-chamberoo;..~e in
the mammals and birds, the heart is four-chambered and has two atria and two ventricles
(fig. 1OJ).

Gills

Fig. 10.3: Circulatory System of Fish.

 139

.wt Atrium
-..........

Right _-+-_ LQft

Atrium Atrium --t---~t
Atrium

Amphibian

Fig. 10.4: Double Circulation.

The BloOd d Mammalian Circulation.

The familiar red fluid transport system, the blood, in mammals is really a liquid
tissue made up of several types of cells suspended in a liquid matrix. The blood
constitutes about 8.0% of the total body weight in man. For an individual of about 70kg
body weight,the total volume flowing in his system is about 5.4 litres, and about half of
the volume of the blood is made up of a fluid called plasma and the other half are the
blood cells. The plasma is straw-coloured and mainly water containing various molecules
and ions of salts such as sodium, calcium, chloride, and foods including glucose, amino
acids, vitamins and hormones, as well as a great variety of plasma proteins and gases.
The blood serum is clear plasma without proteins, (fibrinogen), involved in blood
clotting. In composition therefore, the plasma is about 92 % water, 7 % protein molecules
and the rest salts.

The blood cells are of three main types:

(1) The Leucocytes or the white blood cells: These help to protect the body
from infections and diseases.
 140.

(2) The Erythrocytes or the red blood cells: These cells carry the respiratory
gases - oxygen and carbon dioxide.

(3) . The Thrombocytes or the platelets: Platelets play an important role in

blood clotting.
Others include the lymphocytes which are similarly involved in combating
diseases and formation of antibodies.
The main function of the red blood cells is to transport oxygen from the lungs
(the respiratory organs) to the cells and tissues inside the body. The entire internal
contents of each red blood cell is filled with a red pigmented iron-protein complex called
f:AEMOGLOBIN. Rather than haemoglobin the blood of snails.earthworms etc, the
blue-green pigment dissolved in the blood is a copper-protein complex -
HAEMOCY ANIN. These blood pigments have a great affinity for the respiratory gases.
Oxygen diffuses into the red blood cell, combines with the haemoglobin to form a weak
complex called oxyliemoglobin. The oxygen molecules that become quickly attached to
the haemoglobin in the lungs quickly detached in the cells and tissues. Carbon-dioxide
in the tissues diffuses into the red blood cells to form deoxyhaemoglobin and is carried
to the lungs for expiration into the environment.

The Heart and Circulation in Mammals.

The heart, undergoes a series of rhythmic contraction and relaxation. The
contraction of the heart is referred to as the systole and the relaxation as the diastole.
The heart pumps blood into a network of arteries which ramify in the tissues as the
capillaries. It is at these capillaries exchange of respiratory gases and other molecules
take place between the blood and the tissue. From the capillaries the blood is. collected
by a series of veins that retu~ it to the heart. It should be noted however, that although
arteries carry oxygenated blood, the pulmonary artery that carries the blood from the
heart to the lungs does not. Similarly, the pulmonary veins that return the blood from
the lungs to the heart do not carry deoxygenated blood as the other veins, but carry
oxygenatd blood.
The heart in the mammals and birds is divided into the left and right halves and
a total of four-chambers:
(i) The right atrium
(ii) The left atrium
(iii) The right ventricle
(iv) The left ventricle.
 141

This arrangement prevents oxygenated blood in the left side from mixing with
deoxygenated blood in the right side (fig. 10.5).

Superior
----./7/
Veno cava

Inf"rior ._-t-_ L~ft /ttrr t~

V~na cava A-b-t ,"", M.

Ri~ht
Bicuspid vclve
Pulmonary
Ar terv
LQft ventricte

RiQht vcntr ic IQ-r

Fig. 10.5: A 4-chambered"Heart with Double Circulation in
Mammals and Birds.

Deoxygenated blood returning to the heart through the veins, (the superior and
mferior venae cavae) enters the right atrium. It then passes into the right ventricles via the
tricuspid valves and then to the lungs through the pulmonary artery. The tricuspid valves
three flaps) separate the right atrium and the right ventricle and prevent the backward
ow of blood. The deoxygenated blood now with a fresh load of carbon dioxide from the
. sues flows through the capillaries in the lungs, sheds its C~ and takes up fresh ~ and
oecomes oxygenated. The oxygenated blood now returns to the heart via the pulmonary
ems and enters the left atrium. From the left atrium it flows into the left ventricle and
finally to the dorsal aorta, the main artery in the body. Bicuspid valves (two flaps)
separate the left atrium from the left ventricle and prevent the blood from flowing back into .
e left atrium from the ventricle. From the dorsal aorta, a network of arteries convey the
1000 to the capillary systems in the organs and tissues where the exchange of respiratory
gases takes place. Corresponding veins transport the
 142

deoxygenated blood to the venae cavae (the superior and inferior great veins) through
which it is returned to the right atrium. Both the heart and veins are however equipped
with valves that prevent the blood from flowing back in the wrong direction.

HUMAN BLOOD GROUP.

Different people belong to different blood groups. The reason is that their blood
genes normally code for different blood proteins, the antibodies, when foreign
macromolecules (Antigens) are introduced into their blood. The relationship between
antigens and antibodies is very specific. Each antigen stimulates the production of
antibody molecules capable of combining directly with that antigen and generally no
other. If an individual has a particular antigen in his red blood cells he cannot have the
corresponding antibody in his plasma otherwise the blood would agglutinate. The
antibody immune response in man is such that any living material introduced into the
body may be treated by the recipient as "foreign" and antibodies will react against it.

The most famous blood groups are those of the ABO and Rh series.

THE ABO SYSTEM.

Individuals with type A-blood have Antigen-A in their red blood cells, but plasma
protein, Antibody-B in their blood plasma. The reverse is the case with people having
type-B blood. They have antigen-B in their red blood cells and antibody-A in their blood
plasma. People with both antigens A and B in their red blood cells have neither
antibody-A nor antibody-B in their plasma and have type AB-blood. Type O-blood has
no antigen in the red blood cells but has both antibodies A and B in their blood plasma.
The blood plasma proteins anti-A and anti-B are said to be antibodies to their
corresponding red blood proteins, the antigens. Thus antigens are complementary to
plasma antibodies. In practice this means that plasma containing antibody-B will cause
red blood cells with antigen-B to clump together or agglutinate, thus making the blood
useless. In transfusion therefore, blood from different sources mix together. All is well,
provided the recipient's blood does not contain antibodies corresponding to the donor's
antigens.
For a successful blood transfusion therefore, the ABO blood types must be
compatible between the donor and the recipient. If not, the red blood cells will
agglutinate and that would be fatal. When giving blood in transfusion, the major
objective is to avoid agglutination of the blood in the body of the recipient. It is therefore
possible to give an individual a transfusion of his own type of blood since he will be
 143

receiving the same antigens and antibodies already present in his blood system. But if a
person in blood group A with antibody-B were given blood containing antigen-B, his
antibody-B agglutinins would react and cause the transfused blood to agglutinate, unless
careful testing and cross-matching of the bloods are carried out before hand. Table 1
summaries the type of reactions in blood transfusion.

Table 1.
Recipients

Donors 0 A B AB
(ab) (b) (a) (0)

0
(ab)
- - - -
A x - x -
(b)

B x x - -
(a)

AB x x x -
(0)

The blood antigens are represented by the capital letters A,B, AB, and 0 while the
antibodies are represented by the small letters a, b, ab,. and o. The picture can be
presented in another way as shown below (Table 2).
Table 2:·
Blood Antigen/Antibody Relationship

Blood Blood Blood Antibody Donate to Receive

Group Genotype Antigen from

A AA, AO A b A,AB A, 0

B BB, BO B a B,AB B,O

AB AB A,B none AB O,A,B,AB

0 00 none a,b 0, A, B,AB 0

 14

It is eas; .0 see therefore, that an individual with AB blood type is a universal

recipient. He ha, neither a nor b antibodies. The AB blood having both antigens A and
B can only dona.e to another individual with AB blood and no other. A person in group
0, being a uni -rsal donor has neither antigens A and B. He can however only receive
from another 0 individual since he possesses both a and b antibodies.

THE E Rh) SYSTEM.

The Rh group differs from the ABO system in that the ABO antibodies are
always present in the blood. The Rh blood does not automatically contain the Rh-
antibodies. The Rh-antibodies are only produced when foreign Rh-antigens fmd their
way into the blood.
Rh" (positive) individuals have Rh antigen in their red blood cells and those
without Rh antigens are said to be Rh(negative). The Rh negative blood does not contain
the Rh antibody, however, if Rh" blood accidentally enters a Rh - recipient, the latter
responds by producing the corresponding anti-Rh antibodies. Nothing further happens.
but if this apparently Rh recipient subsequently receives another dose of Rh + blood.
now the Rh antibodies in his system will cause agglutination of the donor's red bloo
cells. This ofen happens with fatal results.
In practice this is not very likely to happen, but in pregnancy it does occur. The
Rh blood groups are best known for their role in producing the condition known as
ERYTIffiOBLASTOSIS FETALIS in new born babies. Trouble occurs when Rh
mother bears Rh" child. Sometimes, particularly in the last months of pregnancy or at
birth, fragments of the foetus' red blood cells (with positi e Rh antigen) pass a ross t e
placenta into the mother's blood-stream. The mother responds by producing Rh
antibodies which will pass back into the foetal circulation thereby destroying the red
blood cells of the child both before and immediately after birth. Or during birth whee
some of the baby's blood may enter the mother's circulation and she will produce Rh
antibodies. If she later carries another Rh" child, her Rh antibodies will cause the blood
. cells of the foetus to agglutinate.
Generally, antibodies are not formed sufficiently quickly to affect the first child
but subsequent children, If also Rh +, suffer massive destruction of their red blood cell
resulting in d ath unless the child's blood is replaced by Rh-blood transfusion to change
all of its blood.
Erythro lastosis fetalis can be prevented in future offspring by treating Rh-
mothers WIth a special anti-Rh globulin serum within 12 hours after the birth of each
Rh+ child. This inactivates any Rh" cells that may have entered the moth," 's blood-
 145

stream at the time of child birth and prevents the maternal blood from producing the anti-
Rh agglutinins. The serum coats the foetal blood cells, thus, blocking the Rh factor, and
the mother's blood would therefore, not present a hazard to her next Rh" child.

REFERENCES
1. Curtis, H. (1983). Biology. Worth Publishers
Inc. New York.

2. Hole, J.W. Human Anatomy and Physiology.

William C. Brown Co. Publishers. New York.

3. Kimball, J.W. (1983). Biology. 5th Ed. Addison -

Wesley Pub. Co. Inc. New York p. 974.

4. Roberts,B.V. (1986). Biology. A Functional Approach

4th Ed. Butler Tanner Ltd. p. 693.

5. Stoer, T. I.; Stebbin, R. C. Us inger, R. L. and

Nybakken,J.W. GeneraL Zoology. McGraw-Hill Bo~k
Co. New. York.

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