What are Lungs

Home Abstract What is Lung Cancer? Small-cell Cancer Non-small-cell Cancer Risk Factors Glossary At a Glance Bibliography/Acknowledgement

The lungs are a vital organ in our body, located in our chests. These pairs of cone-shaped breathing organs bring oxygen into our body and releases carbon dioxide. It is very important to make sure that they are functioning accurately because our life depends on it. Each lung is made up of lobes. The left lung has 2 lobes and the right lung has 3. A hin membrane called pleura surrounds the lungs. Lungs are protected by rib-cage. Beneath the lungs is a dome-shaped muscle called diaphragm, that works with lungs allowing us to inhale (breath the air in) and to ex-hale (breath the air out). From outside lungs look pink and they are sponge like in structure. At the bottom of wind-pipe (trachea) are the 2 tubes (main stem bronchi) that head into the respective lobes. Each main stem bronchi is then gets branched into smaller and smaller tubes (bronchi). So they from a tree like structure. The tiniest branch is called bronchioles. It has a thickness of a human hair. There are bout 30,000 bronchioles in each lung.

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At the end of each bronchiole is a lump of tiny little air sac called Alveoli. Each alveolus (singular of Alveoli) has a mesh of tiny blood vessels called capillaries. These capillaries are so tiny that blood cell have to line up to march through them. When we breath in air though mouth or nose the air gets pushed down windpipe (trachea) and then travels into the series of branches (bronchi and bronchioles) in the lungs and finally reaches alveoli. All the cells in the body need oxygen all the time. Alveoli allow oxygen from air to pass into blood. The oxygen gets attached to red blood cells and then travels unto heart via blood vessels. The heart then sends the pure blood ( with oxygen) out to all other cells in the body.

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