MECHANISM OF VENTILATION

The process in which air moves in and out of the lungs is known as breathing. The breathing
mechanism involves two processes:

 Inspiration
 Expiration
Mechanism Of Inspiration

 The process of intake of atmospheric air is known as inspiration. It is an active

process.
 When the volume of the thoracic cavity increases and the air pressure decreases,
inspiration takes place.
 Contraction of external intercostal muscles increases the volume of the thoracic
cavity.
 Contraction of the diaphragm further increases the size of the thoracic activity.
Simultaneously, the lungs expand.
 With the expansion of the lungs, the air pressure inside the lungs decreases.
 The pressure equalizes and the atmospheric air rushes inside the lungs.
Mechanism Of Expiration

 The process of exhaling carbon dioxide is called expiration. It is a passive process.

 It occurs when the size of the thoracic activity decreases and the air pressure outside
increases.
 Now the external intercostal muscles relax and the internal intercostal muscles
contract.
 As a result, the ribs are pulled inwards and the size of the thoracic cavity is reduced.
 The diaphragm is relaxed and the lungs get compressed.
 Consequently, the pressure increases and the air is forced outside.

There are some muscles called muscles of inspiration ,which contract cause the expansion of
thoracic cage in every transverse – vertical -anteroposterior diameter

When the chest wall expands the parietal pleura also tries to move along with the expanding
chest wall
The visceral pleura also moves along with parietal pleura
The expansion of lung causes the dilation of the airway tube and alveoli system and there is
decreased intra pulmonary pressure that is more negative
This allows the flow of atmospheric air enters into the lungs. This will continue until the
intrapulmonary pressure becomes equal to the external atmospheric pressure. This is
inspiration
 Now the muscles of inspiration stop contracting therefore the intrapulmonary pressure
increases and more than the atmospheric pressure then the air leaves the lungs, this outflow
continues until both pressures equal. This is called expiration.

REGULATION OF RESPIRATION: NERVOUS AND CHEMICAL

REGULATION
Two types of mechanisms regulate breathing: nervous mechanisms and chemical
mechanisms.

NERVOUS REGULATION

The respiratory centers are located in the medulla and pons, which are parts of the brain stem
Within the medulla are the inspiration center and expiration center.

Medullary respiratory centers(RC) has further ,two parts:

1. Dorsal group of respiratory neurons (DRG): This is the center for

inspiration and contain I (inspiratory) neurons. The inspiration

center automatically generates impulses in rhythmic spurts. These impulses
travel along nerves to the respiratory muscles to stimulate their contraction.
The result is inhalation. As the lungs inflate, baroreceptors in lung tissue detect
 this stretching and generate sensory impulses to the medulla; these impulses
begin to depress the inspira-tion center. This is called the Hering-Breuer
inflation reflex, which also helps prevent overinflation of the lungs.
2. Ventral group of respiration (VRG) : This is the center for
expiration,situated in the ventral part of medulla.This area contains mainly E

(expiratory) neurons. As the inspiration center is depressed, the result is a

decrease in impulses to the respiratory muscles, which relax to bring about
exhalation. Then the inspi-ration center becomes active again to begin another
cycle of breathing. When there is a need for more forceful exhalations, such as
during exercise, the inspi-ration center activates the expiration center, which
generates impulses to the internal intercostal and abdominal muscles.

Also, in the pons another part of the respiratory center exists and is called Pneumotaxic
centre (PC) situated in the upper part of the pons. When stimulated sends inhibitory
discharges to the dorsal group of respiratory neurons and results in stoppage of
inspiration.Pons also contains another part of respiratory centers called apneustic
center,situated in the lower part of pons.

CHEMICAL REGULATION
Chemical regulation refers to the effect on breathing of blood pH and blood levels of
oxygen and carbon dioxide. This is shown in Fig. 15–10. Chemoreceptors that detect
changes in blood gases and pH are located in the carotid and aortic bodies and in the
medulla itself.

A decrease in the blood level of oxygen (hypoxia) is detected by the chemoreceptors in

the carotid and aortic bodies. The sensory impulses generated by these receptors travel
along the glossopharyngeal and vagus nerves to the medulla, which responds by
increasing respiratory rate or depth (or both). This response will bring more air into the
lungs so that more oxygen can diffuse into the blood to correct the hypoxic state.

Carbon dioxide becomes a problem when it is pres-ent in excess in the blood, because
excess CO2 (hyper-capnia) lowers the pH when it reacts with water to form carbonic
acid (a source of H+ ions). That is, excess CO2 makes the blood or other body fluids less
alkaline (or more acidic). The medulla contains chemoreceptors that are very sensitive
to changes in pH, especially decreases. If accumulating CO2 low-ers blood pH, the
medulla responds by increasing res-piration. This is not for the purpose of inhaling, but
rather to exhale more CO2 to raise the pH back to normal.

EXCHANGE OF GASES

The air in the alveoli has a high PO2 and a low PCO2. The blood in the pulmonary
capillaries, which has just come from the body, has a low PO2 and a high PCO2.
Therefore, in external respiration, oxygen diffuses from the air in the alveoli to the blood,
and carbon dioxide diffuses from the blood to the air in the alveoli. The blood that
returns to the heart now has a high PO2 and a low PCO2 and is pumped by the left
ventricle into systemic circulation.

The arterial blood that reaches systemic capillaries has a high PO2 and a low PCO2. The
body cells and tis- sue fluid have a low PO2and a high PCO2 because cells continuously
use oxygen in cell respiration (energy production) and produce carbon dioxide in this
process. Therefore, in internal respiration, oxygen dif-fuses from the blood to tissue fluid
(cells), and carbon dioxide diffuses from tissue fluid to the blood. The blood that enters
systemic veins to return to the heart now has a low PO2 and a high PCO2 and is pumped
by the right ventricle to the lungs to participate in exter-nal respiration.

Exchange of gases in the tissues:

1. The alveoli in the lungs are the primary site for the exchange of gases but the
exchange of gasses also occurs between the blood and the tissues. O 2 and
CO2 exchange occur through simple diffusion due to differences in partial pressure.

2. The pO2 in the capillaries is 95 whereas pCO 2 is 40 but in the case of tissue, pO 2 is 40
and pCO2 is 45. So we see there is a difference in the partial pressure of oxygen and
carbon dioxide both in tissues and capillaries there will be an exchange of gases by
simple diffusion.

3. We know that the gases travel from higher partial pressure to lower partial pressure,
so there will be the transport of oxygen from the capillaries to the tissue(pO 2 95
⇢pO2 40). Similarly, Carbon dioxide will also travel from the tissues to the
capillaries(pCO2 45⇢pCO2 40).
PULMONARY VOLUMES

The capacity of the lungs varies with the size and age of the person. Taller people have
larger lungs than do shorter people. Also, as we get older our lung capacity diminishes as
lungs lose their elasticity and the respi-ratory muscles become less efficient. For the
following pulmonary volumes, the values given are those for healthy young adults.

1. Tidal volume—the amount of air involved in one normal inhalation and exhalation.
The average tidal volume is 500 mL

2. Minute respiratory volume (MRV)—the amount of air inhaled and exhaled in 1

minute. MRV is cal-culated by multiplying tidal volume by the number of respirations
per minute (average range: 12 to 20 per minute). If tidal volume is 500 mL and the res-
piratory rate is 12 breaths per minute, the MRV is 6000 mL, or 6 liters of air per minute,
which is average.

3. Inspiratory reserve—the amount of air, beyond tidal volume, that can be taken in
with the deepest possible inhalation. Normal inspiratory reserve ranges from 2000 to
3000 mL.

4. Expiratory reserve—the amount of air, beyond tidal volume, that can be expelled
with the most forceful exhalation. Normal expiratory reserve ranges from 1000 to 1500
mL.

5. Vital capacity—the sum of tidal volume, inspira-tory reserve, and expiratory reserve.
Stated another way, vital capacity is the amount of air involved in the deepest inhalation
followed by the most force-ful exhalation. Average range of vital capacity is 3500 to
5000 mL.

6. Residual air—the amount of air that remains in the lungs after the most forceful
exhalation; the average range is 1000 to 1500 mL. Residual air is important to ensure that
there is some air in the lungs at all times, so that exchange of gases is a con-tinuous
process, even between breaths.
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