B10.

02​ Hormones
●​ Hormones are chemicals that are produced in endocrine glands and carried via
bloodstreams to alter the activities of their specific target organs.

Term Definition Purpose

Hormones Chemical messengers produced by Regulate bodily functions

endocrine glands

Endocrine Glands that produce hormones Secrete hormones directly

Glands into the bloodstream

Target Specific organs that hormones affect the Respond to hormones to

Organs activities of. carry out specific functions

Gland Hormone secreted Function

Adrenal Gland Adrenaline Prepares the body for vigorous action

Pancreas Insulin Reduces the concentration of glucose in the blood

Glucagon Increases the concentration of glucose in the blood

Testis Testosterone Causes the development of male secondary sexual

characteristics

Ovary Oestrogen Causes the development of female secondary

sexual characteristics and helps in the control of the
menstrual cycle.

●​ The main hormone discussed in the IGCSE syllabus is adrenaline.

●​ Adrenaline is secreted from two adrenal glands, one above each kidney.
○​ The hormone is produced when you get frightened or excited, which makes your
brain spend impulses along a nerve to your adrenal glands, secreting adrenaline
into your blood.
●​ Adrenaline has several effects designed to help a person cope with danger. These
effects are known as the “fight or flight” response.
○​ Adrenaline targets the heart into beating faster, thus supplying more oxygen to
your muscles and brain rapidly, allowing your muscles to aerobically respire more
quickly; hence giving them more energy for fighting or running away.
○​ The depth (or the rate) of a person’s breathing is also effected by the hormone,
allowing more oxygen to enter the blood in the lungs.
 ○​ Adrenaline also dilate (widens) the pupils, which allows more light to enter the
eye, helping to see the danger more clearly.
○​ The hormone also informs the liver to release more glucose into the blood,
allowing for extra glucose to be used by the muscles with the extra oxygen to
increase metabolic activity.

Normal Bodily Adrenaline-Boosted Bodily Purpose

Functions Functions

Normal Heart Rate Increased heart rate Supplies more oxygen to

muscles and brain

Regular Breathing Increased breathing depth Allows more oxygen to enter

the blood

Small Pupils Dilated pupils Improves vision to see

danger clearly by letting more
light enter the pupils

Normal Blood Increased blood glucose Provides extra energy for

Glucose muscles to respire with

B10.03​ Homeostasis
●​ Homeostasis is the maintenance of a constant internal environment.
○​ The cells in your body don’t have to change their environment in response to the
environment. Your body keep the environment inside you the same all the time.
An example of this would be how your body always keeps the concentration of
glucose in the blood the same through the use of glucagon and insulin, or the
temperature through the hypothalamus.
●​ Homeostasis helps your cells to work as efficiently as possible.
○​ Your body keeps a constant temperature of around 37 Degrees Celsius to help
enzymes work at the optimum rate.
○​ The amount of water is kept the same, so your cells do not get damaged by
absorbing or losing too much water by osmosis.
○​ The concentration of glucose is constant, which means that there is always
enough fuel for respiration without causing cells to lose water due to osmosis.
●​ Homeostasis also involves the nervous systems, as well as hormones.

Controlling Blood Glucose Concentrations

●​ The control of blood glucose concentrations is an essential aspect of homeostasis, since
cells need a steady supply of glucose to allow them to respire and without this supply,
they cannot respire.
 ○​ Brain cells are especially dependent on glucose for respiration, and they die
quickly if they are deprived of it.
●​ However, too much glucose can cause water to move out of cells and into the blood
through osmosis. This leaves the cells with too little water to carry out their normal
metabolic processes.
●​ Blood glucose levels are controlled by hormones which are secreted by the pancreas.
●​ The pancreas has two glands in one. Most of it is an ordinary gland with a duct which
make pancreatic juice, which flows along the pancreatic duck into the duodenum.
However, scattered through the pancreas are groups of cells called islets which do not
make pancreatic juice but rather two hormones: insulin and glucagon.
●​ If the blood glucose concentration gets too high, then the islet cells will secrete insulin.
Insulin tells the liver cells to absorb glucose from the blood and use them through
respiration or convert them into glycogen, an insoluble polysaccharide. This decreases
the blood glucose concentration.
●​ If the blood glucose gets too low, the pancreas will secrete glucagon, which informs your
liver cells to break down glycogen into glucose and release it into the blood, increasing
blood glucose concentration.

Hormone Secreted When Effect on Liver Result

Insulin Blood glucose is too Absorbs glucose, and Decreases blood

high converts it to glycogen glucose

Glucagon Blood glucose is too Breaks glycogen into Increases blood

low glucose glucose
Negative Feedback and Set Points
●​ Our blood glucose concentration doesn’t stay constant, but a normal concentration can
be anywhere between 0.8 and 1.1 mg per cm3 of blood.
○​ Since we have around 5 dm3 of blood in our body, this means we usually have a
minimum of 4g of glucose circulating in the bloodstream at any one time.
●​ This range of normal values is called the set point for blood glucose concentration. The
pancreas and liver work together to keep the values within this range.
○​ The set point is the normal value or range of values for a particular parameter.
●​ When the islet cells in the pancreas detect that the blood glucose concentration has left
the set range, then it will release insulin, if the concentration is too high, or glucagon, if
the concentration is too low.
●​ The secretion of insulin causes the liver to absorb glucose from the blood. Which
reduces its concentration. The liver can use some glucose in respiration, breaking it
down to carbon dioxide and water. The rest is converted into glycogen by linking many
glucose molecules together into a long chain to make glycogen molecules. This can be
stored in the liver cells.
●​ The secretion of glucagon causes the liver to break down its glycogen stores, producing
glucose molecules which move out of the liver and into the blood. This increases blood
glucose concentration so that goes back towards normal.
●​ This is an example of negative feedback. In negative feedback systems:
○​ There is a set point which is a normal level that the system tries to maintain.
○​ There is a ‘measuring device’ that keeps track of whether the level is within the
range of the set point.
 ○​ If the level goes outside the set point, this triggers events to happen that bring
this level back into line again.
●​ The negative feedback system doesn’t happen instantaneously, since it takes the
pancreas a short while to detect if the blood glucose concentration changes. Then more
time is needed to secrete the appropriate hormone and then for the hormone to reach
the target organ, the liver. And also time is needed for the liver to complete the
appropriate action (e.g., absorbing glucose, converting glucose into glycogen). Only then
does the blood glucose level start to change to reach the set range.
●​ This lag time means that the blood glucose concentration often goes up and down
around the set point, rather than staying absolutely steady.

Component Function Example

Set Point Normal value or range 0.8-1.1 mg/cm3 for blood

glucose

Measuring Device Detects changes in the parameter Pancreas, detecting blood

glucose levels for any
changes

Response Action taken to return to the set point Insulin or glucagon is

secreted

Controlling Body Temperature

●​ Some animals are very good at controlling their temperature, allowing them to keep their
temperature almost constant even if the temperature of the environment changes. This
has great advantages since if the internal body temperature can be around 37°, then it
allows enzymes to work very efficiently, no matter what the outside temperature is.
○​ This means that metabolism to work around the clock.
●​ The skin is the most important organ is temperature regulation for mammals.
●​ The skin is covered with a layer of dead cells, forming a tough, impermeable barrier that
prevents water evaporating from the living cells below. It also prevents pathogens from
entering the body.
●​ Underneath this protective layer, there are many types of living tissues present.
●​ There are sweat glands which extract water and ions from the blood and produce a
water fluid called sweat. The sweat travels up the sweat duct to the skin surface and is
released thought the sweat pore. Seat plays an essential part in temperature regulation.
●​ There are also blood vessels which contain arterioles that bring oxygenated blood to the
skin. These arterioles divide to form capillaries, which take blood up to just below the
skin surface, before joining again to form venules which take the deoxygenated blood
back to the veins. There are also shunt vessels that the blood can travel through without
having to go all the way up to the skin surface.
●​ The skin is dotted with hair and each hair has a tiny muscle attached to it, called a hair
erector muscle. When this muscle contracts, it pulls the hair up straight.
●​ There are two kinds of receptors in the skin: temperature receptors and pressure
receptors. The temperature receptors are sensitive to temperature, and they send
electrical impulses along sensory neurones if the temperature of the environment
changes.
●​ There is also a layer of fatty tissue, which is made up of cells that contain large drops of
oil. This helps to insulate your body against heat loss whilst also acting as an energy
reserve.
●​ The hypothalamus in the brain is the centre of the control mechanism that keeps internal
temperatures constant. The hypothalamus coordinates the activities of the parts of the
body that can help keep the temperature of the blood at its set point.
○​ It acts like a thermostat, which contains temperature receptors that sense the
temperature of the blooding running through it.
○​ If the temperature of the blood is above or below 37℃, then the hypothalamus
sends electrical impulses, along the neurones, to the parts of the body which
have the function of regulating your body’s temperature, like your skin.
 ●​ There are two sets of temperature receptors: one in the hypothalamus which sense the
temperature of the blood and the ones near the surface of the skin which sense the
temperature of the air and water around us. These can give early warnings that the body
temperature might change.
○​ E.g., if the receptors in the skin detect a very low temperature around us, this
suggests that the body might be about to lose heat, making the body temperature
fall. The receptors will send electrical impulses to prevent this from happening,
even before the blood temperature has changed.
●​ When the temperature changes, the hypothalamus will send electrical signals along
motor neurones to the skin, muscles and liver, causing the following things to happen.

When Temperature Falls ●​ Muscles will shiver by contracting and relaxing very
quickly. The constant contraction and relaxation
requires energy from respiration. This energy is released
as heat and the heat generated by the muscles warms
the blood as it flows through them, which distribute this
heat all over the body.

●​ The speed of metabolic reactions in other tissues, not

only muscles, increases, generating more heat.

●​ The erector muscles in the skin contract, pulling the

hairs up. This isn’t as helpful in humans than in hairy
animals, which trap a thick layer of warm air next to the
skin. This prevents the skin from losing more heat,
acting as an insulator.
●​ The blood vessels near the surface of the skin go
through the process of vasoconstriction, in which the
arterioles that supply the blood capillaries become
narrower. This means only a small amount of blood will
blow in the surface capillaries. The rest of the blood will
instead flow through the deep-lying capillaries instead,
since they are below the insulating fatty tissues. This
allows the blood from not losing too much heat to the air.

●​ Sweat glands will also reduce the quantity of sweat that

they produce since sweat isn’t needed when the body
needs to warm because sweat helps to cool the body
down.

When Temperature Rises ●​ The erector muscles in the skin relax so that the hairs lie
flat on the skin, allowing for more heat to leave the skin
through radiation into the air.

●​ Vasodilation will take place by widening the arterioles

which supply the capillaries near the surface of the skin.
Since more blood flowing near the surface of the skin, it
allows the blood to readily lose heat into the air.
 B12: Inheritance

B13: Variation and Selection

B13.03 Drugs
●​ Drugs are any substance that is taken into the body which modifies or affects chemical
reactions in the body.
●​ Antibiotics are a medicinal drug that is taken into the body and kills bacteria but doesn’t
affect humans cells or viruses
●​ There are many types of antibiotics such as penicillin which stops bacteria from forming
cell walls, which kills the bacteria by bursting it when it is trying to reproduce.
●​ Antibiotics target structures or processes that only bacteria have, like:
○​ Cell walls
○​ Bacterial Ribosomes-They are different from human ribosomes, so antibiotics
can block protein synthesis in bacteria only
○​ Enzymes unique to bacteria (needed for DNA replication or metabolic reactions
in bacterial cells)
●​ Antibiotics don’t attack human cells and viruses since they don’t have the bacterial
structures like cell walls or bacterial ribosomes.
Antibiotic Resistance
●​ Pathogenic bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, which means that they no
longer get killed by the antibiotics, reducing the effectiveness of the antibiotics.
●​ This happens through natural selection, which increases the ability of the bacteria to
survive and reproduce.
○​ The population of bacteria in a person’s body may contain millions of individuals,
but within this population there will be likely at least one or two individuals who
randomly have a mutated allele that makes them resistant to penicillin.
○​ These individuals will have selective advantage which allows them to reproduce
whilst others can’t. The allele which confers resistance to penicillin is passed on
to their offspring, who will continue to reproduce to from a huge population of
penicillin-resistant bacteria.

●​ Today, there are many populations of bacteria that have become resistant to more than
one antibiotic. For example, the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which lives on the
skin of most of us and is normally completely harmless. However, it can cause
dangerous infections if it gets through the skin and into the body.
○​ In the past, it was easy to treat these infections because the bacterium could be
killed with many antibiotics like penicillin, oxacillin, amoxicillin, and methicillin.

Step Description Example

1 Bacteria population with some Staphylococcus aureus with a methicillin

resistant individuals resistance allele

2 Antibiotic kills susceptible bacteria Methicillin kills non-resistant bacteria

3 Resistant bacteria survives and Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA)

reproduces survives

4 Resistant population increases MRSA population grows