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Regulatory Principles in Physiology

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Comprehensive Human Physiology

Abstract

All living organisms live in the tension between constancy and change. On the one hand, they have to keep certain structural and functional states reasonably invariant; for instance, concentrations of important ions in the blood plasma (e.g., protons, ionized Ca2+) are maintained within narrow limits by complex regulatory mechanisms establishing homeostatic conditions. On the other hand, many internal and external variables can and must be changed. These changes may depend upon circumstantial requirements, such as the increase in cardiac output and blood pressure during exercise, or they may follow rhythmic patterns, such as diurnal or other periodicity. An important task for the organism then is to coordinate and integrate these different patterns into a functional whole.

Dedicated to the memory of our late colleague H.P. Koepchen

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Authors
  1. U. Windhorst
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Physiologisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Str. 7, 79104, Freiburg, Germany

    Rainer Greger

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, 3330 Hospital Drive N.W., T2N 4N1, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Uwe Windhorst

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Windhorst, U. (1996). Regulatory Principles in Physiology. In: Greger, R., Windhorst, U. (eds) Comprehensive Human Physiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60946-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60946-6_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64619-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-60946-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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