THE ROLE OF STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ASYMMETRY IN THE CIRCULATION

Asymmetry is a very remarkable property of biological structures and functions. Structure and function of the human body are strong interrelated and depend on each other. Failures in structural development often imply subsequent functional failures of the organism after the developmental phase. It is the asymmetry in the cardiovascular system that plays an important role with respect to its functional optimization. The time course of the contraction of the heart and of the ejection into the large arteries is asymmetric in time in order to minimize energy consumption. The so-called Liebau effect permits valveless pumping of fluids and essentially depends on the asymmetric properties of conduits. One important example of the Liebau effect appears to be in the function of the coronary vascular system. It can be shown that there are several mechanisms of so called valveless pumping that contribute to the blood transport in the cardiovascular system. The common denominator of most of these mechanisms is the dependence of the unidirectional pumping effect on asymmetry. It appears that many additional examples of transport effects concerning fluids or gases in biology as well as in engineering have their basis in the underlying structural asymmetry.