Embryology
- Early Embryology: The First Four Weeks
- Embryology 2: Fate of the Ectoderm and Mesoderm
- Embryology and Evolution
We will need to learn about the development of specific systems later, but we won't learn about specific system development until we start learning about those specific systems. (Hope that sentence made sense :P)
Tissues
Tissues
In that post, I mentioned that there were cells that support the neurons, but I didn't say what they were. Well, here's a quick rundown: oligodendrocytes form myelin sheets around axons in the central nervous system, Schwann cells do the same thing in the peripheral nervous system, astrocytes protect and form the blood-brain barrier, and microglia mediate the immune response and act as macrophages.
Organs
I've just realised that I actually don't have a previous general post about organs (at least not one that I could find with a quick search), as most of my posts tend to be about specific organs. However, given that I can't be bothered making a separate post, I'm going to give a tl;dr version of this lecture, right here, right now.
Define an organ
At least two types of tissues that work together to form a functional unit. For instance, muscle is an organ as it consists of two types of tissues (muscle tissue surrounded by connective tissue) and it works as a functional unit, causing contraction.
Know the principal organs of each system
Note that this is not an exhaustive list- I'm just writing random words from the lecture slides.
- Respiratory- nose, mouth, pharynx, larynx, trachea, lungs
- Digestive- mouth, tongue, teeth, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver, gall bladder, colon
- Circulatory- heart, blood vessels
- Endocrine- hypothalamus, pituitary gland, pancreas, suprarenal/adrenal glands, gonads, thymus, thyroid gland, parathyroid gland
- Muscular- muscles
- Skeletal- bones, cartilage, joints
- Urinary- kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra
- Nervous- brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, special sense organs (e.g. eyes and ears)
- Immune/Lymphatic- lymph nodes, thymus, bone marrow, tonsils, spleen, appendix
- Integumentary- skin, hair, nails
- Reproductive- gonads, vas deferens, seminal vesicles, prostate gland, bulbourethral gland, penis, ovarian tube, uterus, vagina
Recognise the relationship between the structure and function of an organ
This is one that we'll learn more about over the course of the year, or by casually perusing literally any material that has been written about any organ. For instance, organs involved in absorption (e.g. small intestine) tend to have structures that increase the surface area, such as folds and microvilli on the cells. Organs that need to squeeze a lot (heart, stomach, etc.) tend to have a lot of muscle. Similarly, pretty much every other organ has a structure that helps it carry out its function.
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