Complex network which connects several biologically relevant entities
Abiological system is a complexnetwork which connects several biologically relevant entities. Biological organization spans several scales and are determined based different structures depending on what the system is.[1] Examples of biological systems at the macro scale arepopulations oforganisms. On theorgan andtissue scale inmammals and other animals, examples include thecirculatory system, therespiratory system, and thenervous system. On themicro to thenanoscopic scale, examples of biological systems arecells,organelles, macromolecular complexes andregulatory pathways. A biological system is not to be confused with aliving system, such as a livingorganism.
Lymphatic system: structures involved in the transfer oflymph betweentissues and theblood stream; includes the lymph and thenodes andvessels. The lymphatic system includes functions including immune responses and development of antibodies.
Immune system: protects the organism from foreign bodies.
The notion of system (or apparatus) relies upon the concept of vital or organicfunction:[2] a system is a set of organs with a definite function. This idea was already present inAntiquity (Galen,Aristotle), but the application of the term "system" is more recent. For example, the nervous system was named by Monro (1783), butRufus of Ephesus (c. 90–120), clearly viewed for the first time the brain, spinal cord, and craniospinal nerves as an anatomical unit, although he wrote little about its function, nor gave a name to this unit.[3]
The enumeration of the principal functions - and consequently of the systems - remained almost the same since Antiquity, but the classification of them has been very various,[2] e.g., compareAristotle,Bichat,Cuvier.[4][5]
The notion of physiological division of labor, introduced in the 1820s by the French physiologistHenri Milne-Edwards, allowed to "compare and study living things as if they were machines created by the industry of man." Inspired in the work ofAdam Smith, Milne-Edwards wrote that the "body of all living beings, whether animal or plant, resembles a factory ... where the organs, comparable to workers, work incessantly to produce the phenomena that constitute the life of the individual." In more differentiated organisms, the functional labor could be apportioned between different instruments or systems (called by him asappareils).[6]
Endoplasmic reticulum: outer part of thenuclear envelope forming a continuous channel used for transportation; consists of the rough endoplasmic reticulum and the smooth endoplasmic reticulum
Rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER): considered "rough" due to theribosomes attached to the channeling; made up of cisternae that allow for protein production
Smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER): storage and synthesis of lipids and steroid hormones as well as detoxification
Ribosome: site of biological protein synthesis essential for internal activity and cannot be reproduced in other organs
^F. Muggianu; A. Benso; R. Bardini; E. Hu; G. Politano; S. Di Carlo (2018). "Modeling biological complexity using Biology System Description Language (BiSDL)".2018 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM). pp. 713–717.doi:10.1109/BIBM.2018.8621533.ISBN978-1-5386-5488-0.S2CID59233194.{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)
^abFletcher, John (1837). "On the functions of organized beings, and their arrangement". In:Rudiments of physiology. Part 2. On life, as manifested in irritation. Edinburgh: John Carfrae & Son. pp. 1-15.link.
^Swanson, Larry (2014).Neuroanatomical Terminology: A Lexicon of Classical Origins and Historical Foundations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.linkArchived 2023-09-28 at theWayback Machine. p. 489.
^Bichat, X. (1801).Anatomie générale appliquée à la physiologie et à la médecine, 4 volumes in-8, Brosson, Gabon, Paris,link. (See pp. cvj-cxj).
^Cuvier, Georges.Lecons d'anatomie comparée 2. éd., cor. et augm. Paris: Crochard, 1835-1846.linkArchived 2009-03-02 at theWayback Machine.
^R. M. Brain.The Pulse of Modernism: Physiological Aesthetics in Fin-de-Siècle Europe. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015. 384 pp.,[1]Archived 2023-07-03 at theWayback Machine.
