Biology Extra Reading Summaries

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• CHAPTER 7,8 HEART AND EXCHANGE SURFACES EXTRA READING

Bringing a "Ghost Heart" to life.

• Heart diseases: Impaired heart function, valves don't work correctly. Prosthetic valves could be used to mimic this pumping function.
• Researchers at MIT have designed a Ghost Heart, one that can beat outside the body. Based on a pigs heart, the heart has been striped of its muscles and these have been manufactured from silicon instead, and tests show it has been successful.
• The researchers found that engineers didn't base their attempts off of a human heart, and most of the anatomy was from machinery which had to be tested on animals. This new invention with the basis of a pig's heart allows for less animal testing to be done in the future as it is based off of a previous living animal.
• Clara Park who worked on the : "I was amazed at how efficient the heart was and this became the inspiration for the robotic muscles"
• Doris Taylor: Within 2 years she hopes that automation of these hearts, the production will be accessible for many teams in the US.
• Stem cells growing Ghost Hearts:
• Texas Heart Institutes uses stem cells to grow your own heart.
• The team removed all the cells from a heart, leaving the scaffolding behind, it looks white and opaque hence the term ghost heart. These cells are swapped for stem cells.
• The rich blood supply needed to be engineered first. Each heart muscle is surrounded by four capillaries and this was achieved with vascular cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells were then used to create the heart cells.
• Difficulties:
• Had to give the cells a blood supply, a blood pressure and somewhere for the blood to travel to, such as the rest of the body and how they can beat synchronised.
• Heart patches: Using the blood supply to create patches for the heart, they tried this on the ventricle.

Best way to breathe during exercise?

• Breathing in through nose: Filters out pollutants, humidified the air. Not enough air via the nose, so mouth breathing during exercise.
• 150ml gets stuck in lungs, nose. Bigger deep breath --> more air getting to lungs and more efficiently. Nose can concentrate on deep breaths.
• Ribcage, back muscles: 80 muscles used during breathing while exercising. Target muscles used for breathing helps strengthen them and to do them more efficiently by prioritising where blood flow goes and therefore your exercise performance by up to 19%. Blowing up a balloon was an old technique of breathing muscle training.
• Breathing out of mouth: Personal preference, controlled breaths.
• Breathing out releasing more CO2 which can rise blood pH causing dizziness and fainting.
• Breathing during exercise is voluntary control, and this is where the problems lie as we are out of sync of our normal breathing patterns.
• Yoga: slowly focussing on breathing and the muscles. Slow down breathing rate and therefore making the
• Climbers who practised yoga were more likely to complete the top of the k2 and Everest mountains without extra oxygen.
• Parasympathetic system: Slow down breathing rate, which we can control and do, and controls nervous system.
• Reduce inflammation, blood pressure and heart rate.
• Keeps body and mind together - yoga.
• Resistance work on breath: breathing out, utilising core and aids ability to lift weights.
• Grunting noises at gym: Heavy weights, closing near where the voice box. Increasing stability. Reduces "pain".
• Tennis grunting: More forceful throw and smash of the ball.

How can breathing make us feel better.

• Diaphragmatic breathing: Abdomen
• Upper chest gets used during moments of excitement or adrenaline.