Examples of cells that show cellular homeostasis

Our assignment was to state two examples of cells that showed cellular homeostasis, these are the two examples:-

1. (a) Pancreatic Cells

Glucose is a certain type of sugar that providing energy for a living organism and serves as a type of carbohydrate. It is found in the bloodstream of living organisms, however proper glucose levels have to be maintained in order for the body to be healthy. When glucose levels get too high, the pancreas releases a hormone known as insulin which regulates the amount of blood glucose in the bloodstream. If glucose levels drop too low, the liver in turn converts glycogen, a polysaccharide which forms glucose by hydrolysis, into glucose again. 

Pancreas

Taken from: www.pathology.jhu.edu

2. Liver Cells

The liver aids digestion and regulates the amount of blood sugar by storing the excess sugar (a.k.a. glycogen) and breaking down the excess glycogen only when needed. When an organism has consumed something, large amounts of sugar would be carried from the intestines and stored as glycogen. When an organism undergoes stress, more sugar is required to sustain the body and glycogen is broken down into simple sugars again to be released into the bloodstream. 

Liver

www.chop.edu

2. 

Kayaking at OBS

During OBS next week, think about how your body will perform during the following:-

1. Water Regulation

2. Temperature Regulation

3. Glucose Regulation

Submit a short write-up about ONE of the above.

Therefore I chose "Temperature Regulation".

During OBS, we did many physical activities ranging from kayaking to trekking; the sea expedition and land expedition. Both of them were extremely tiring given that we had to kayak for 8 hours around Pulau Ubin, from Camp 2 to Kekek (isolation camp) and Trekking from Kekek all the way back to Camp 2 while taking some detours. However for this post, I would be talking about the temperature change from our bodies during the kayaking session. 

Temperature regulation, or thermoregulation, is the ability for an organism to keep its body temperature within a certain boundary, even with the presence of external factors. If our body temperatures rise significantly above the normal temperature (abt. 37.0), a condition called hyperthermia occurs. When our body temperature decreases significantly, a condition called hypothermia occurs.

Circadian Rhythm Diagram

 During the day, our body temperatures would fluctuate. Our body temperatures would be the lowest from 04 00 to 06 00, therefore whenever we wake up in the morning at 05 00 everyday during OBS, it would be very cold. However once we have eaten our breakfast, our body temperatures would change again, and possibly quite drastically, because we would be burning off on calories from the food we eat. 

We set out for the sea expedition from 07 30 to around 16 00. We met strong currents along the way, slightly before lunchtime, before 12. That would be when we would have high alertness, according to the circadian rhythm diagram. Therefore we were able to fight off the strong currents as well given that our body temperature increases due to higher body activity, when we breathe in more oxygen to supply our muscles with the energy needed.