00:01
In this lecture, you are going to learn how
the air we breathe into our lungs is first
warmed, moistened, then cleaned before it
finally makes its way down to the lung, a huge
interface between blood and air and we will look
at the structures whereby gaseous products
can be exchanged with the blood. We will also
look at some of the structures that help us
to speak and also smell. Well, I hope you take away
a lot of knowledge from this lecture.
00:38
It is important you understand what respiratory
epithelium is and what the functions of the
conchae in the nasal cavity are. And also
we will have to look at the very specialized
epithelium, which helps us to smell. The vocal
cords in the larynx and the epiglottis are
very important structures. And then it is important
you understand the structures of all the airways
that take the air from our nasal cavity all
the way down to the lungs for exchange and
when we look at those airways it is important
you know the difference between a bronchus,
a bronchiole and then the small bronchioles
within the lungs that enables the transport
of gaseous products from the air into the
blood stream. Then it is important that you
understand the components of the alveolar
wall, that interface where this transfer occurs.
01:36
And there are number of cells that make up that
interface. And then lastly it is important
for you to understand the blood supply to
the lung. Well, as I indicated in the start of this
lecture, the lung has a number of different
structures that perform very important functions.
01:55
It is important to clean, warm and moisten
the air before it passes down into our lungs.
02:00
It is important to understand gas exchange
interfaces. Also we are going to appreciate
that there are a number of different cells
in the respiratory system, that there are receptors,
for instance, those that helps us to smell,
but also briefly account for how we can speak
by looking at structures in the lung. And it
is important that we look at that and for
you to understand how we can produce speech.
So it is also important to understand that
the interface in the lung is a very important
surface area. It is a huge surface area and
although I am not going to this in detail,
it provides an enormous surface area for both
the lining of the lung wall and also the lining
of the capillary beds to secrete various messengers
in the body and also break down various messengers
in the body. And lastly, we must appreciate
that the lung, all the tubes, the nasal
cavity and all the conduits going down into
the lung are actually exterior to the body and
therefore they can be exposed to the possible
infiltration by pathogens, antigens, bacteria
and so we must have the capacity in all those
passages to be able to mount an immune response
against those antigens that we inhale.