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Why does oxygen diffusion from the alveolus to the alveolar capillary occur?
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Diffusion (of anything) occurs because of a concentration gradient meaning there is more oxygen in one place than another.
Alveolus when you inhale will have a higher concentration of oxygen that that of the alveolar capillary resulting in a concentration gradient, this causing diffusion to occur until equilibrium is met.
This means more oxygen in alveolus so oxygen travels into the alveolar capillary until a balanced amount of oxygen is in both places, but then of course the oxygen is transported and you exhale and inhale so the process repeats.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
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What role did diffusion play in the changes you observed?
Before diffusion there is a higher concentration of oxygen molecules outside the cell than inside the cell. After diffusion the concentration of oxygen molecules is the same outside and inside the cell.
Is oxygen entering liver cells from the blood an example of diffusion?
Yes it is.
How oxygen enters a red blood cell from alveoli in the lungs?
Diffusion along the (partial) pressure gradient.
What happens to an oxygen gas when it reaches an alveolus?
It defuses throught the respiratory membrane and binds to hemoglobin (in humans) following a hemoglobin type-specific binding affinity curve (depending on the Po2 of the local atmosphere.)
What is capillarisation?
a capillary is our body's smallest form of blood vessel the more capillary's at the muscles, the more oxygen the muscles can use an increase in capillarisation means that there is an increase in blood vessels and subsequently an increase in the opportunity for blood (and oxygen) to be transported to and used by the muscles a decrease in capillarisation means that there is a decrease in poo vessels and subsequently a decrease in the opportunity for blood (and oxygen) to be transported to and used by the muscles aerobic or endurance training does well to bring about an increase in capillarisation, meaning that muscles can perform for longer peroids of time as they are able to use more oxygen for contraction
What is characterized anatomically as the permanent abnormal enlargement of distal airway spaces and destruction of the alveolar walls?
Emphysema. The alveolar walls are destroyed and replaced with scar tissue, which cannot allow diffusion of oxygen from the alveolus to the capillary. It cannot be reversed.
What is the mechanism that allows oxygen to move from the alveolar into the pulmonary capillary blood?
Simple diffusion
Where is oxygen transferred to?
Oxygen is transferred to hemoglobin at the alveolar/capillary function. This transfer occurs through diffusion.
What substance diffuses from an alveolus into a capillary?
Oxygen.
Why is the distance between the air in an alveolus and the blood in an alveolar capillary is less than 11000th of a millimetre?
Around the lungs,the blood is separated from the air inside each alveolus by only two cell layers; the cells making up the wall of the alveolus and the capillary wall itself. This is a distance of less than a thousandth of a millimetre. Because the air in the alveolus has a higer concentration of oxygen than the blood entering the capillary network, oxygen diffuses from the air across the wall of the alveolus and into the blood. That is why the distance is important.
Is oxygen more concentrated in the alveolus or capillary?
In the alveoli
Will O2 diffuse from air to blood or from blood to the alveolar air?
It will be absorbed from the air into your lungs. Then when it reachs the alveolus it will diffuse from the alveolus into the blood capillaries down an oxygen concentration through diffusion where it will combine with the heamoglobin in the Red Blood Cells.
What makes the concentration of oxygen low in the alveolus?
Oxygen diffuses into the blood capillary
What is the process called in which oxygen enters the body and carbon dioxide exits the body?
Oxygen and carbon dioxide travel into and out of the bloodstream via diffusion across alveolar and capillary membranes.
Site of alveolar-capillary oxygen exchange?
Within the lungs.
Name the process by which oxygen moves across the wall of the alveolus?
diffusion
What is the of Alveolus?
The alveolus is a air sac that holds the oxygen. It squashes the oxygen molecules so they diffuse from the alveolus into the capillary. From there, they attach themselves to deoxygenated Red Blood Cells. The oxygen in the blood plasma are also squashed and are diffused. They go from the capillary to the alveoli to get breathed out. The alveoli transfers the oxygen to the lung capillaries and oxygenates the blood, then it is breathed out as Carbon Dioxide.
