The Pathway for Oxygen: Structure and Function in the Mammalian Respiratory System

It is rare indeed for one book to be both a first-rate classroom text and a major contribution to scholarship. The Pathway for Oxygen is such a book, offering a new approach to respiratory physiology and morphology that quantitatively links the two. Professionalism in science has led to a compartmentalization of biology. Function is the domain of the physiologist, structure that of the morphologist, and they often operate with vastly disparate concepts and procedures. Yet the performance of the respiratory system depends both on structural and on functional properties that cannot be separated. The first chapter of The Pathway for Oxygen engages the student with the design and function of the vertebrate respiratory organs from a comparative viewpoint. The second chapter adds to that foundation the link between cell energetics and oxygen needs of the whole animal. With Chapter 3 the excitement begins—new ideas, fresh attacks on old problems, and a fuller account of the power of the quantitative approach Dr. Ewald Weibel has pioneered. The Pathway for Oxygen will be read eagerly by medical students, graduate students, advanced undergraduates in zoology—and by their professors.

Table of Contents:
OXYGEN AND THE HISTORY OF LIFE The Cell's Oxygen Sink and Energetics Getting Oxygen to the Sink Evolution of O2 Transport Systems Evolution of External Gas Exchangers Looking at the System as a Whole: Philosophy of the Approach THE BODY'S NEED FOR OXYGEN Levels of O2 Consumption Estimating the Limits of O2 Consumption LINKING STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION: MODEL, MEANS, AND TOOLS How Does Structure Affect O2 Flow? Are Animals Built Reasonably? The Tools CELL RESPIRATION Gaining Energy from Combustion Metabolic Pathways of the Cell The Cell's Energetic Balance Sheet MITOCHONDRIA: THE CELL'S FURNACES Putting Some Order into Cell Metabolism Oxidation-Phosphorylation Coupling Depends on Structure Mitochondria and the Cell's Aerobic Potential Mitochondria in Muscle Cells THE VEHICLE FOR OXYGEN TRANSPORT: BLOOD AND CIRCULATION The O2 and CO, Carrier: Blood Moving Blood Around: Circulation O2 Transport by the Blood DELIVERING OXYGEN TO THE CELLS Distributing Blood to the Tissues: Design of the Vasculature The Microvascular Unit O2 Flow from Blood to Cells DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAMMALIAN LUNG Development of the Lung Lung Histogenesis: Differentiation toward Gas Exchange The Lung at Birth and Its Postnatal Maturation LUNG CELL BIOLOGY Organization of the Lung's Cell Population A Closer Look at the Cells of the Gas Exchange Region AIRWAYS AND BLOOD VESSELS The Airway Tree Ventilation The Vascular Trees Pulmonary Blood Flow Ventilation-Perfusion Matching THE LUNG'S MECHANICAL SUPPORT External Support and Motive Force The Pleural Cavity The Lung's Fiber Skeleton Surface Tension Micromechanics and the Configuration of the Alveolar Septum Keeping the Barrier Dry and Thin THE LUNG AS GAS EXCHANGER Design of the Gas Exchanger Physiological Basis for Gas Exchange Pulmonary Diffusing Capacity: Physiology Pulmonary Diffusing Capacity: Morphometry Structure and Function Compared Matching the Conductance to O2 Needs: The Emergence of a Paradox Resolving the Paradox: Models and Nature THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM IN OVERVIEW Adjusting Performance to Needs Adjusting Potential to Needs The Limits to Potential: The Smallest Mammal UNITS OF MEASUREMENT GENERAL REFERENCES INDEX