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Gas exchange is the physical process by which gases move passively by diffusion across a surface. For example, this surface might be the air/water interface of a water body, the surface of a gas bubble in a liquid, a gas-permeable membrane, or a biological membrane that forms the boundary between an organism and its extracellular environment.
Gas exchange in the lungs occurs in millions of small air sacs; in mammals and reptiles, these are called alveoli, and in birds, they are known as atria. These microscopic air sacs have a very rich blood supply, thus bringing the air into close contact with the blood. [ 2 ]
Exchange of gases in the lung occurs by ventilation and perfusion. [1] Ventilation refers to the in-and-out movement of air of the lungs and perfusion is the circulation of blood in the pulmonary capillaries. [1] In mammals, physiological respiration involves respiratory cycles of inhaled and exhaled breaths.
The primary purpose of breathing is to refresh air in the alveoli so that gas exchange can take place in the blood. The equilibration of the partial pressures of the gases in the alveolar blood and the alveolar air occurs by diffusion. After exhaling, adult human lungs still contain 2.5–3 L of air, their functional residual capacity or FRC ...
Bronchial arteries carry oxygenated blood to the lungs; Pulmonary capillaries, where there is exchange of water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and many other nutrients and waste chemical substances between blood and the tissues; Bronchial veins drain venous blood from the large main bronchi into the azygous vein, and ultimately the right atrium.
The right-to-left shunt is an abnormal blood circulation that enables deoxygenated blood to pass from the right side to the left side of the heart and skips the lungs. Thus, no oxygenation occurs, and reduced gas exchange results in hypoxemia as fresh oxygen cannot reach the shunted blood. [18]
The anatomical structure of the lungs is less complex in reptiles than in mammals, with reptiles lacking the very extensive bronchial tree found in mammalian lungs. Gas exchange in reptiles still occurs in alveoli, but reptiles do not possess a diaphragm, therefore ventilation occurs via a change in the volume of the body cavity which is ...
The major function of the lungs is gas exchange between the lungs and the blood. [67] The alveolar and pulmonary capillary gases equilibrate across the thin blood–air barrier . [ 34 ] [ 68 ] [ 69 ] This thin membrane (about 0.5 –2 μm thick) is folded into about 300 million alveoli, providing an extremely large surface area (estimates ...