Trace the path of an oxygen molecule from the air to a muscle cell in your arm, naming all the structures invo?

Trace the path of an oxygen molecule from the air to a muscle cell in your arm, naming all the structures involved along the way

Trace the path of an oxygen molecule from the air to a muscle cell in your arm, naming all the structures invo?
OXYGEN: FROM NARES TO MYOCYTE.





Here's the full, detailed story. Just eliminate whatever detail you consider excess:





From the external nares (nostrils), air, which is usually 21% oxygen mixed with 79% nitrogen, enters into the nasal cavity within the nose and passes over the nasal turbinates (shown but not labeled in the first link below) where it is warmed and humidified, and where nasal hairs remove larger particles of particulate matter from it.





The air then enters the upper part of the posterior oral cavity called the nasopharynx and flows down into the lower throat, or laryngopharynx. http://fau.pearlashes.com/anatomy/Chapte...





From here it passes through the epiglottis into the larynx and through the vocal cords contained therein before entering the cartilagenous trachea, where a further set of hairs covered in a thin sheet of mucus removes smaller particulate matter missed in the upper respiratory tract.





From the trachea, the air passes into one of the two mainstem bronchi and then proceeds further down the respiratory tree which continues to branch into ever smaller generations of bronchioles. Finally, the air enters the terminal bronchioles, which deliver the inspired air into the air sacs, or alveoli, of the lung tissue. http://training.seer.cancer.gov/module_a...





The oxygen in the alveolar air then passes through the alveolar epithelial cells, through a basement membrane, and finally through the endothelial cells lining the pulmonary capillaries and enters the bloodstream. The oxygen molecule diffuses through the plasma and into an erythrocyte (red blood cell) where it finds hemoglobin with which to bind.





The freshly oxygenated blood in the pulmonary capillaries empties into the pulmonary veins, left atrium and left ventricle in that order, and then out of the heart into the arterial system beginning with the aorta. (numbers 3-6 at http://fajerpc.magnet.fsu.edu/Education/... )





It then proceeds through several branchings into a large artery, smaller arteries and several arterioles before reaching the capillary bed of some muscle (or other tissue). Here, the oxygen molecules dissociate from the hemoglobin and diffuse out of the erythrocyte into the plasma, then out of the plasma and capillary into the interstitial fluid surrounding the myocytes (muscle cells) into which they diffuse to support aerobic cellular respiration. http://www.evgn.org/images/vessels.gif

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