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Related Concept Videos

What is Homeostasis?01:16

What is Homeostasis?

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Maintaining homeostasis requires that the body continuously maintain its internal conditions. Each physiological condition has a particular set point, from body temperature to blood pressure to levels of certain nutrients. A set point is the physiological value around which the normal range fluctuates. A normal range is a restricted set of values that is optimally healthful and stable. For example, the set point for normal human body temperature is approximately 37°C (98.6°F).
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Homeostatic Imbalance01:10

Homeostatic Imbalance

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Homeostasis is the maintenance of a stable internal environment within the body, which is crucial for the proper functioning of cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems. The body has various control mechanisms that work together to regulate various physiological parameters such as temperature, blood pressure, pH balance, and fluid balance, to name a few. These control mechanisms are based on feedback loops that can be either positive or negative.
However, sometimes these feedback loops fail,...
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Positive and Negative Feedback Loops01:18

Positive and Negative Feedback Loops

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Animal organs and organ systems constantly adjust to internal and external changes through a process called homeostasis ("steady state"). Examples of these changes include regulation of the level of glucose or calcium in the blood or internal responses to external temperatures. Homeostasis requires  maintaining an internal dynamic equilibrium:
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Homeostatic Imbalances in Body Temperature01:19

Homeostatic Imbalances in Body Temperature

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Hyperthermia occurs when the body's temperature becomes unusually high, often due to heat exposure, intense physical activity, or certain illnesses. This condition can create a dangerous cycle where elevated body temperature increases the metabolic rate, generating more heat and potentially leading to organ failure and brain damage. A severe form of hyperthermia, called heat stroke, can raise body temperature to life-threatening levels. Fever, on the other hand, is a controlled form of...
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Non-equilibrium in the Cell01:16

Non-equilibrium in the Cell

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An important concept in studying metabolism and energy is that of chemical equilibrium. Most chemical reactions are reversible. They can proceed in both directions, releasing energy into their environment in one direction, and absorbing it from the environment in the other direction. The same is true for the chemical reactions involved in cell metabolism, such as the breaking down and building up of proteins into and from individual amino acids, respectively. Reactants within a closed system...
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pH Homeostasis01:31

pH Homeostasis

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Acid-base homeostasis is essential for maintaining normal physiological activities in humans. The pH of various body fluids is strictly regulated because it is critical for the optimal activity of enzymes involved in metabolic reactions. Enzymes are basically proteins, so, any significant change in pH can affect their structure and activity. In humans, pH is regulated using three primary mechanisms— chemical buffer systems, respiratory regulation, and renal regulation.
Respiratory...
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Using Caenorhabditis elegans as a Model System to Study Protein Homeostasis in a Multicellular Organism
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Escape from homeostasis.

H Frederik Nijhout1, Janet Best2, Michael C Reed2

  • 1Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27705, USA.

Mathematical Biosciences
|September 23, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Homeostatic mechanisms maintain physiological stability but can buffer genetic variation, leading to cryptic genetic variation. Mutations and environmental changes can destabilize homeostasis, revealing this variation and contributing to complex disease etiology.

Keywords:
Chair curveDopamineFeed forward inhibitionHomocysteineMyogenic responseThermoregulation

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Area of Science:

  • Physiology
  • Genetics
  • Biochemistry
  • Systems Biology

Background:

  • Physiological systems utilize homeostatic mechanisms to maintain variables within narrow ranges.
  • Homeostasis buffers traits against environmental and genetic variation, allowing cryptic genetic variation to accumulate.
  • Homeostatic mechanisms are imperfect and susceptible to destabilization by mutations affecting their kinetics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how homeostatic mechanisms influence the accumulation and release of cryptic genetic variation.
  • To analyze the impact of mutations and environmental changes on homeostatic regions.
  • To explore the role of homeostasis and its destabilization in complex disease etiology.

Main Methods:

  • Mathematical modeling of five diverse homeostatic systems: thermoregulation, homocysteine concentration, neural feedforward control, myogenic response in the kidney, and extracellular dopamine regulation.
  • Analysis of homeostatic regions and their sensitivity to genetic and environmental variation.

Main Results:

  • Identified homeostatic regions where traits are insensitive to variation, flanked by sensitive regions.
  • Demonstrated that mutations or environmental changes can shift individuals towards the edge of homeostatic regions, increasing susceptibility to deleterious effects.
  • Showed that mutations and environmental variables can reduce the size of homeostatic regions, releasing cryptic genetic variation.

Conclusions:

  • Homeostatic mechanisms create regions of stability but also facilitate the accumulation of cryptic genetic variation.
  • Destabilization of homeostasis by mutations or environmental factors can expose this variation, contributing to complex disease.
  • Understanding the interplay between mutations, environment, and homeostasis is crucial for explaining complex disease etiology.