Biology AS91604 (3.2)
Demonstrate understanding of how an animal maintains a stable internal environment.
Blood Glucose Regulation
Homeostasis is the mechanism of maintaining a state of dynamic equilibrium about a set point in an internal environment despite fluctuations in the external environment. Many cellular functions and processes in animals are only able to be carried out efficiently within particular conditions, and so homeostasis, keeping a stable internal environment about a set point where cells function at an optimal level, therefore allows the body to function at an optimal level and so allows an animal to survive, carrying out life processes such as reproduction.
Blood glucose regulation is a homeostatic system in an animal that controls the levels of glucose in the blood.
In humans, glucose is needed for cellular respiration for energy to carry out life processes, and though many tissues can use other substances, such as amino acids or lipids, as sources of energy, some tissues and organs can only use glucose, but most importantly our brain, or more specifically, neurons. Blood glucose regulation maintains constant supply of glucose to
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When there is a stimulus, a change in the internal environment, the receptor detects this change. In this homeostatic system, the stimulus would be a change in the levels of blood glucose of a human. The controller then responds to this change to reduce the change, to bring the variable back to the set point, and the effector then acts on the response of the controller to oppose the change until the set point is reached again. Blood glucose regulation is a negative feedback system; it acts to oppose change in blood glucose levels from the set point to maintain