Cells need water because almost all processes that are essential to life take place in a solution! Oxygen and nutrients are necessary to produce energy. All these elements are carried to the cells in the blood. Water and nutrients enter the blood from the digestive system, oxygen enters through the respiratory system.
Horses (and all living things) need usable energy to move, grow, reproduce and repair. Energy cannot be created (or destroyed) it is only changed from one form to another (the first law of thermodynamics). Energy exists in many forms; including chemical, electrical, nuclear, heat, light, and mechanical.
In my blog about cells a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that mitochondria supply energy to the cell.
The form of energy used to fuel the biological processes mentioned above is ATP (adenosine triphosphate) but very little is stored in the body. In fact, at any one moment the body only has enough ATP to keep it alive for 1 second! So, ATP is continuously produced through cellular respiration, and there are 2 types: -
- Anaerobic respiration - is when energy is transferred from food to ATP without oxygen. In this process food molecules are only partly broken down, not fully to result in carbon dioxide. Glucose in the food molecules is broken down in to pyruvate (the process is called glycolysis) and then in animals the pyruvate is converted into lactate or lactic acid (lactate fermentation). Lactic acid build up is what causes us to have stitch if we don't breathe properly when doing sitting trot!
- Aerobic respiration - is when the glucose is broken down using oxygen, this happens in a number of stages to limit the amount of heat produced. As the food molecules are broken down the energy released is used to produce ATP . Aerobic respiration can produce a much larger number of ATP molecules than anaerobic respiration.
NB - a molecule is a small particle.
The stages of cellular respiration:-
1.
Glycolysis & Fermentation - occurs in both anaerobic and
aerobic respiration, so can take place with or without oxygen.
2.
The Krebs Cycle - takes place in the mitochondria of the
cell and requires oxygen.
3.
The Electron Transport System - also takes place in the
mitochondria and requires oxygen.
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Until next time!
Jo
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