Human body cells

Aristotle recognised the importance of water by including it among the four elements along with fire, earth and air. In its many different functions, water is essential to the earth as we know it. Life critically depends on the presence of water. It is the medium of cells and is essential for the structure of proteins, cell membranes and DNA ". It has been estimated that more than 99 % of the molecules in the human body are actually water molecules". ... 

Iron is indispensable in the human body (see Mineral nutrients). The average adult body contains 3 grams of iron. About 65% is found in hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs to the various parts of the body. Iron is also needed for the proper functioning of cells, muscles, and other tissues (4). 

Phosphorus. Eighty-five percent of the phosphoms, the second most abundant element in the human body, is located in bones and teeth (24,35). Whereas there is constant exchange of calcium and phosphoms between bones and blood, there is very Httle turnover in teeth (25). The Ca P ratio in bones is constant at about 2 1. Every tissue and cell contains phosphoms, generally as a salt or ester of mono-, di-, or tribasic phosphoric acid, as phosphoHpids, or as phosphorylated sugars (24). Phosphoms is involved in a large number and wide variety of metaboHc functions. Examples are carbohydrate metaboHsm (36,37), adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from fatty acid metaboHsm (38), and oxidative phosphorylation (36,39). Common food sources rich in phosphoms are Hsted in Table 5 (see also Phosphorus compounds). 

Zinc. The 2—3 g of zinc in the human body are widely distributed in every tissue and tissue duid (90—92). About 90 wt % is in muscle and bone unusually high concentrations are in the choroid of the eye and in the prostate gland (93). Almost all of the zinc in the blood is associated with carbonic anhydrase in the erythrocytes (94). Zinc is concentrated in nucleic acids (90), and found in the nuclear, mitochondrial, and supernatant fractions of all cells. 

Biosynthesis of Protein. The dynamic equilibrium of body protein was confirmed by animal experiments using A/-labeled amino acids in 1939 (104). The human body is maintained by a continuous equilibrium between the biosynthesis of proteins and their degradative metabolism where the nitrogen lost as urea (about 85% of total excreted nitrogen) and other nitrogen compounds is about 12 g/d under ordinary conditions. The details of protein biosynthesis in living cells have been described (2,6) (see also Proteins). 

Muscle tissue is unique in its ability to shorten or contract. The human body has three basic types of muscle tissue histologically classified into smooth, striated, and cardiac muscle tissues. Only the striated muscle tissue is found in all skeletal muscles. The type of cells which compose the muscle tissue are known as contractile cells. They originate from mesenchymal cells which differentiate into myoblasts. Myoblasts are embryonic cells which later differentiate into contractile fiber cells. 

The human body has more than 600 muscles. The body s movement is performed by muscle contractions, which are stimulated by the nervous system. This system links muscle tissue to the spinal cord and brain. The network of nerve cells which carries the brain s signals directs the flow of muscular energy. Most muscular activity occurs beyond the range of the conscious mind. The body, working through the neuromuscular network, manages... 

In the tissues of animals, most thiamine is found as its phosphorylated esteis (4—6) and is piedominandy bound to enzymes as the pyrophosphate (5), the active coen2yme form. As expected for a factor involved in carbohydrate metaboHsm, the highest concentrations ate generally found in organs with high activity, such as the heart, kidney, Hver, and brain. In humans this typically amounts to 1—8 p.g/g of wet tissue, with lesser amounts in the skeletal muscles (35). A typical healthy human body may contain about 30 mg of thiamine in all forms, about 40—50% of this being in the muscles owing to their bulk. Almost no excess is stored. Normal human blood contains about 90 ng/mL, mostly in the ted cells and leukocytes. A value below 40 ng/mL is considered indicative of a possible deficiency. Amounts and proportions in the tissues of other animal species vary widely (31,35). 

The absorption, distribution, and accumulation of lead in the human body may be represented by a three-part model (6). The first part consists of red blood cells, which move the lead to the other two parts, soft tissue and bone. The blood cells and soft tissue, represented by the liver and kidney, constitute the mobile part of the lead body burden, which can fluctuate depending on the length of exposure to the pollutant. Lead accumulation over a long period of time occurs in the bones, which store up to 95% of the total body burden. However, the lead in soft tissue represents a potentially greater toxicological hazard and is the more important component of the lead body burden. Lead measured in the urine has been found to be a good index of the amount of mobile lead in the body. The majority of lead is eliminated from the body in the urine and feces, with smaller amounts removed by sweat, hair, and nails. 

Of the thousands of different enzymes present in the human body, those that fulfill functions indispensable to cell vitality are present throughout the body tissues. Other enzymes or isozymes are expressed only in specific cell types, during certain periods of development, or in response to specific physiologic or pathophysiologic changes. Analysis of the presence and distribution of enzymes and isozymes— whose expression is normally tissue-, time-, or circumstance-specific—often aids diagnosis. 

Osmotic pressure plays an important role in biological chemistry because the cells of the human body are encased in semipermeable membranes and bathed in body fluids. Under normal physiological conditions, the body fluid outside the cells has the same total solute molarity as the fluid inside the cells, and there is no net osmosis across cell membranes. Solutions with the same solute molarity are called isotonic solutions. 

The human body generates a steady flow of acidic by-products during its normal metabolic processes. Foremost among these is carbon dioxide, which is a major product of the reactions the body uses to produce energy (see Section 14-). An average person produces from 10 to 20 mol (440 to 880 g) of CO2 every day. Blood carries CO2 from the cells to the lungs to be exhaled. In aqueous solution, dissolved CO2 is in equilibrium with carbonic acid H2 O + CO2 H2 CO3... 

Because nuclear radiation varies considerably in energy, the potential to cause damage cannot be assessed simply by counting the number of emissions. The energy of emissions must also be taken into account. Furthermore, the three different t T)es of nuclear radiation affect human cells to different extents. When the amount, energy content, and t T)e of radiation are taken into account, the result is a measure of the effect of radiation on the human body. This is expressed using a unit called the rem. 

The hydrolysis of zeaxanthin esters by a carboxyl ester lipase indeed enhanced both the incorporation of zeaxanthin in the micellar phase and uptake of zeaxanthin by Caco-2 cells. As mentioned earher, carotenoids can also be linked to proteins by specific bindings in nature and these carotenoid-protein complexes may slow the digestion process and thus make their assimilation by the human body more difficult than the assimilation of free carotenoids. Anthocyanins are usually found in a glycosylated form that can be acetylated and the linked sugars are mostly glucose, galactose, rhamnose, and arabinose. 

All multicellular life starts as a single cell. Copies of the DNA in that cell must eventually occupy almost every one of the trillions of cells in a human body. For that to happen, the DNA in the original cell must replicate itself many times. The key to this replication is the famous double helix. When two strands of DNA— let s call them X and Y—separate, each strand can assemble the other. X builds a new Y, forming a fresh double helix. Y does the same thing. This doubles the number of DNA molecules. This mechanism depends on the two strands of DNA being able to hold together under normal conditions, yet unwind easily. That is where hydrogen bonds come in. 

Red blood cells owe their color to the iron complex heme, a component of hemoglobin. This provides the human body with oxygen, right up to the finest capillary. In the absence of oxygen, the blood goes dark red (venous blood). 

There are different types of cholinesterases in the human body, and they differ in their location in tissues, substrate affinity, and physiological function. The main ones are ACHE, present in nervous tissue and red blood cells (RBC-ACHE), and plasma cholinesterases (PCHE), present in glial cells, plasma, and liver. The physiological functions of RBC-ACHE and PCHE, if any, are unknown. 

The most numerous of the cellular elements in the blood are the erythrocytes (red blood cells). On average, there are 5 million red blood cells per microliter (pi) of blood, or a total of about 25 to 30 trillion red blood cells in the adult human body. The percentage of the blood made up of red blood cells is referred to as hematocrit. An average hematocrit is about 45% (42% females, 47% males). As such, the viscosity of the blood is determined primarily by these elements. 

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