The human heart is a vital organ in the human body. The heart is located under the rib-cage just above the diaphragm on the left side of the sternum. It is usually found in between the lungs. The heart takes the shape of an upside-down pear and its relative size is that of a folded fist. The average mass of the heart is 200-300 grams and it has the ability to pump 4.5 liters of blood around the body. The heart’s primary function in the human body is to pump blood through blood vessels to all parts of the body. As the blood circulates around the body, oxygen and nutrients are supplied to the tissues and carbon dioxide and other nitrogenous waste products are removed from the tissues. The heart has chambers that ensure pumping of oxygenated blood to the body tissues and deoxygenated blood to the lungs.
The human heart is vital for human survival. The body organs require energy to function and this energy is generated through respiration. Respiration requires oxygen which is supplied to the organ tissues by blood. The blood circulates around the body supplying oxygen to all the organ tissues and the force behind the circulation is generated by the heart. Also, as the tissues respire, they produce toxic waste products which would be harmful to the body organs. The blood removes these waste products from the tissues and transports them to excretory organs such as the liver and the kidney. The fact that all the body organs including the brain require oxygen to function makes the heart a critical organ for survival.
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The human heart has the cardiac muscle tissue which has a vital role in the functioning of the heart. The cardiac muscle makes the heart walls, and the contraction and relaxation of these muscles bring about the pumping movements of the heart. This muscle tissue is an involuntary muscle hence the heart walls contract and relaxes involuntarily hence the heart is said to be myogenic.
The cardiac muscle tissues have a critical role in the functioning of the heart. The walls of the heart, which are composed of the cardiac muscles, continually contract and relax to bring about the pumping of the heart. As a result, these tissues require a lot of energy. The energy is generated through respiration in the mitochondria and this explains the heavy presence of elongated mitochondria in the cardiac muscle cells. The cardiac muscle cells also referred to as cardiomyocytes produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) energy which is necessary for the functioning of the heart. The inner membranes of the mitochondria are highly folded to form cristae to increase the surface area for the respiratory activities. The cells ensure there is enough supply of energy in the heart walls hence continued pumping of blood by the heart.
Also, the heart has cardiac pacemaker cells which transmit impulses which are responsible for the heart beats. These cells are found all over the heart walls and their primary function is to generate and send electrical impulses to the walls of the heart. They also receive impulses from the brain and transmit them to every cell in the heart. The cardiomyocytes provide the energy required to transmit the impulses generated by the cardiac pacemakers. This means that all the two cell types work in coordination with each other to provide the overall function of the heart.
An organ requires more than one specialized cell and tissue to function. This is because each cell has a unique but vital function to the overall functioning of the organ. For instance, the heart has several specialized cells whose functions are different but coordinated to achieve the primary function of the heart which is to pump blood. Each cell and tissue work independently hence efficiency, and then the functions are incorporated into a single function within the organ.
