Integumentary System Study Guide

Question 1

What is the Integumentary System?

Answer 1

the skin and its accessory structures

Question 2

What is Epidermis?

Answer 2

the outer epithelial layer of skin

Question 3

What is Dermis?

Answer 3

the thick layer of the skin beneath the epidermis

Question 4

What is the Subcutaneous Layer?

Answer 4

the layer beneath the skin

Question 5

What is Keratin?

Answer 5

the protein in epidermis, hair, and nails

Question 6

What is Keratinization/ Keratinocytes?

Answer 6

the process by which cells form fibrils of keratin and harden

Question 7

What is Melanin/Melanocytes

Answer 7

Dark pigment normally found in skin and hair

Question 8

What are nails?

Answer 8

protective coverings on the ends of fingers and toes

Question 9

What is the Nail Plate?

Answer 9

overlies the nail bed

Question 10

What is the Nail Bed?

Answer 10

the nail plate overlies this

Question 11

What is Lunula?

Answer 11

whitish, thickened, half-shaped region at the bast of a nail plate

Question 12

What are Hair Follicles?

Answer 12

a group of epidermal cells at the base of a tubelike depression

Question 13

What are Hair Roots?

Answer 13

the part of the hair extending from the surface to the dermis

Question 14

What is a Hairshaft?

Answer 14

the remains constitute the structure that extends away from the skin surface

Question 15

What is a Albinism?

Answer 15

when a person has the inherited condition of white hair and has no melanin at all

Question 16

What is the Arrector Pili Muscle?

Answer 16

smooth muscle in the skin associated with a hair follicle

Question 17

What are Sebaceous Glands?

Answer 17

skin glands that secrete sebum

Question 18

What is Sebum?

Answer 18

oily secretion of sebaceous glands

Question 19

What are Eccrine Glands?

Answer 19

sweat glands that maintain body temperature

Question 20

What are Apocrine Glands?

Answer 20

type of gland whose secretions contain parts of secretory cells

Question 21

Functions of Skin?

Answer 21

Provides a protective covering, helps regulate body temperature, retards water loss from deeper tissues, houses sensory receptors, synthesizes various biochemicals, and excretes small quantities of wastes. Skin cells also help produce vitamin D which is necessary for normal bone and tooth development. Certain skin cells (keratinocytes) assist the immune system by producing hormonelike substances that stimulate development of certain white blood cells (Tlymphocytes).

Question 22

Structure of skin? (Be able to label)

Answer 22

The skin has two distinct layers: the epidermis and the dermis. The epidermis, outer layer, is composed of stratified squamous epithelium. The dermis, inner layer, is thicker than the epidermis and includes connective tissue consisting of collagenous and elastic fibers, epithelial tissue, smooth muscle tissue, nervous tissue, and blood. The basement membrane connects the two layers together.

Question 23

How does your body regulate temperature/why is it important?

Answer 23

Normally, the temperature of deeper body parts remains close to a set point of 37℃ (98.6 ℉ ). Maintenance of a stable temperature requires that the amount of heat the body loses be balanced by the amount it produced. As body temperature rises, nerve impulses stimulate structures in the skin and other organs to release heat. For example, during physical exercise, active muscles release heat, which the blood carries away. The warmed blood reaches the part of the brain (the hypothalamus) that controls the body’s temperature set point, which signals muscles in the walls of dermal blood vessels to relax. As these vessels dilate (vasodilation), more blood enters them, and some of the heat and the blood carries escapes to the outside. At the same time that the skin loses heat, the nervous system stimulates the eccrine sweat glands to become active and to release sweat onto the skin surface. As this fluid evaporates, it carries heat away from the surface, cooling the body. It is important because even the slight shifts can disrupt the rates of metabolic reactions. The skin plays a key role in the homeostatic mechanism that regulates body temperature.

Question 24

How does the integumentary system heal a wound?

Answer 24

Blood vessels in affected tissues dilate and become more permeable, allowing fluids to leak into the damaged tissues. This provides the tissues with more nutrients and oxygen, which aids healing. If the injury extends into the dermis or subcutaneous layer, blood vessels break, and the escaping blood forms a clot in the wound. The blood clot and dried tissue fluids form a scab that covers and protects underlying tissues. Fibroblasts migrate into the injured region and begin forming new collagenous fibers that bind the edges of the wound together. Blood vessels extend into the area beneath the scab. Phagocytic cells remove dead cells and other debris. Eventually, the damaged tissues are replaced, and the scab sloughs off. In large, open wounds healing may be accompanied by formation of small, rounded masses called granulations that develop in the exposed tissues. The granulation consists of a new branch of a blood vessel and a cluster of collagen-secreting fibroblasts that the vessel nourishes. Some of the blood vessels are resorbed, and the fibroblasts move away, leaving a scar composed of collagenous fibers.

Question 25

What is the difference between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree burns?

Answer 25

1. A burn injuring the epidermis alone is 1st degree (superficial partial thickness.)
2. A burn that destroys the epidermis as well as some underlying dermis is 2nd degree (deep partial-thickness.)
3. A burn that destroys the epidermis, the dermis, and the accessory structures of the skin is 3rd degree