MadSci Network: General Biology
Query:

Re: Do we have positive feedback in our body?

Date: Tue Oct 20 19:26:18 1998
Posted By: Andrea Zardetto-Smith, Asst Prof -faculty, Physical Therapy and Biomedical Sciences, Creighton University
Area of science: General Biology
ID: 906301946.Gb
Message:

Yes, there are some processes that use positive feedback.   Blood clotting 
is one such example.  Bleeding causes a cascade of reactions to occur that 
"feed forward" to generate the next agent in the clotting process. 
Ultimately however the bleeding is stopped, thus the process terminates in 
a negative feedback step.  There are some other examples in the endocrine 
system of hormones acting in a positive feedback mechanisim to cause the 
release of another hormone.  In general, though, the majority of 
physiological processes use negative feedback.  If you need more specific 
examples of positive feedback please let me know.




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