The respiratory system brings air into the lungs supplying the blood with oxygen. Oxygen is carried throughout the body to the organs and keeps the heart pumping and when the blood circulates back to the lungs the process starts over again.
The following structural changes occur as conducting tubes
become smaller;
- support structures change. The trachea has more hyaline cartilage
than the bronchioles
- epithelium type changes with bronchioles having ciliated
columnar cells with the trachea having tall columnar pseudostratified
- amount of smooth muscle increases as you go lower the respiratory tract
