Anatomy & Physiology, 6th Edition by Elaine N. Marieb and Katja Hoehn connects human body structures with their functions. Designed for college anatomy and physiology courses, it progresses from chemistry, cells, and tissues to interacting organ systems. The conceptual organization emphasizes homeostasis and relationships among systems rather than isolated anatomical facts.
Inside this title
Chemical, cellular, tissue, and organ levels of body organization
Current listed price $18.00Regular price $30.00Digital ebook
Marieb and Hoehn build their account of the human body from chemical and cellular foundations through tissues and organ systems. Structure and function remain linked as the text examines support and movement, nervous coordination, hormonal regulation, and the maintenance of internal conditions. The narrative is designed to emphasize concepts and connections.
Coverage extends to cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, urinary, reproductive, lymphatic, and immune functions. Students encounter topics such as muscle contraction, sensory processes, gas exchange, nutrient absorption, and fluid balance within the larger organization of the body. This sixth edition suits college learners developing an integrated understanding of human anatomy and physiology.
Study guide included
Inside Anatomy & Physiology, 6th Edition.
A course-ready survey that ties each human structure to the function it performs and to the feedback that keeps the internal environment workable. Marieb and Hoehn build from chemistry and cells to organ systems, serving college anatomy and physiology students who need a coherent, systems-level view.
The opening unit covers anatomical language, chemistry, cells and tissues. Later units follow protection and movement through skin, skeleton, joints and muscle, then nervous and endocrine control, and then circulation, respiration, immunity and digestion. The final chapters connect renal function, fluid balance and reproduction to broader regulation. Structure, function and feedback recur as the reading method for every system, and each chapter asks how local events serve the whole body and how a disturbance is corrected. Diagrams, clinical asides and review questions support that habit.
Organization, terminology and homeostasis
Anatomical terms fix where a structure lies and how a section passes through it, while tissues combine cells and matrix for lining, support, force or signaling. Organs arrange several tissue types, and their function follows that arrangement. Regulation begins with a detected change: a receptor reports it, a control center integrates, and effectors respond, with negative feedback opposing the shift and positive feedback amplifying it until stopped.
Terms and planes anchor every description
Tissue arrangement explains organ function
Feedback starts with a detected change
Membranes and gradients maintain cell conditions
Chs. 1–4 · Organization of the Body
Skin, skeleton, joints and muscle
Skin forms a boundary that limits water loss, senses the surroundings and helps regulate temperature. Bone pairs strength with living tissue that remodels under load, and the skeleton protects organs and transmits force. Joint surfaces and connective tissues permit or restrict motion, while motor neurons trigger calcium release and contractile proteins, with the nervous system grading force by recruiting motor units.
Skin both protects and participates in regulation
Bone remodels in response to demand
Joint structure sets the available range
Motor units grade muscular force
Chs. 5–10 · Covering, Support, and Movement
Nervous and endocrine coordination
Neurons hold electrical gradients and propagate action potentials, communicating chemically or electrically at synapses. Sensory input may enter a local reflex or travel to integrating regions, and autonomic pathways regulate organs such as the heart and gut. Endocrine signals travel in body fluids to cells with matching receptors, and feedback adjusts secretion as effects develop, so the two systems constantly influence each other.
Action potentials carry neural signals
Reflex arcs integrate sensory input locally
Hormones act on receptor-bearing target cells
Neural and endocrine control interact
Chs. 11–15 · Regulation and Integration
Circulation and gas exchange
The right heart sends blood to the lungs and the left to the body, with valves keeping flow directed as pressures change. Arteries deliver, capillaries exchange and veins return, while blood carries gases, nutrients, hormones, waste and heat. Breathing moves air by changing thoracic pressure, and at the alveoli gases diffuse across a thin interface; delivery then depends on ventilation, exchange surface, hemoglobin and circulation together.
Two circuits keep pulmonary and systemic flow apart
Capillaries are the exchange site
Alveolar diffusion depends on a thin surface
Ventilation, hemoglobin and flow all limit delivery
Chs. 16–18, 21 · Blood, Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems
Defense, digestion and metabolism
Lymphatic vessels return excess tissue fluid, and lymphoid tissues give immune cells a place to meet material from body and environment. Innate defenses act quickly through barriers and inflammation, while adaptive defenses recognize specific targets and can retain memory. Digestion breaks food down mechanically and enzymatically, the small intestine absorbs most nutrients, and metabolic pathways use, store or convert that material into ATP as demand changes.
Lymphatics recover fluid and stage immune encounters
Innate and adaptive defenses cooperate
Enzymes and mechanics break food apart
Metabolism routes nutrients into ATP or stores
Chs. 19–20, 22–23 · Lymphatic, Immune and Digestive Systems
Renal balance and reproduction
Nephrons filter plasma, reclaim useful material and secrete selected substances, and the handling of water and solutes sets the final urine. Hormones and fluid compartments work with the kidney to support blood volume and electrolytes, while buffers, breathing and renal adjustment stabilize pH on different timescales. Reproductive anatomy supports gamete production and transport, and hormonal signaling coordinates gonadal function and cyclic change.
Filtration, reabsorption and secretion shape urine
Kidneys work with hormones on fluid balance
pH control spans buffers, lungs and kidney
Endocrine feedback coordinates reproduction
Chs. 24–26 · Urinary System, Fluid Balance and Reproduction
Chapter and section map
Organization, chemistry, cells and tissuesChs. 1–4
Integument, skeleton, joints and musclesChs. 5–10
Nervous and endocrine regulationChs. 11–15
Blood and circulationChs. 16–18
Lymphatic and immune systemsChs. 19–20
Respiration, digestion and metabolismChs. 21–23
Urinary function and fluid balanceChs. 24–25
The reproductive systemCh. 26
Key takeaways
Use anatomical position and tissue arrangement to explain what a structure can do.
Trace a homeostatic response from detected change through control center to effectors.
Separate the movement of materials through a system from the cellular use of them.
College students enrolled in two-semester anatomy and physiology courses, and instructors who want a systems-oriented text that keeps homeostasis and structure-function connections in view throughout.
Topics covered
anatomy and physiology
body organization
homeostatic feedback
skeletal system
nervous system
cardiovascular system
immune defenses
renal physiology
endocrine regulation
Questions about this ebook.
Edition, audience, and study-guide details at a glance.
What is Anatomy & Physiology, 6th Edition about?
Anatomy & Physiology, 6th Edition by Elaine N. Marieb and Katja Hoehn connects human body structures with their functions. Designed for college anatomy and physiology courses, it progresses from chemistry, cells, and tissues to interacting organ systems. The conceptual organization emphasizes homeostasis and relationships among systems rather than isolated anatomical facts.
Which edition of Anatomy & Physiology, 6th Edition is this?
This listing is for the 6th edition. Check the title, ISBN, and book details above before ordering, especially if your course or reading list names a specific edition.
Who is Anatomy & Physiology, 6th Edition for?
College students enrolled in two-semester anatomy and physiology courses, and instructors who want a systems-oriented text that keeps homeostasis and structure-function connections in view throughout.
Does this page include a study guide?
Yes. This page includes an original study guide with six thematic sections, key takeaways, and a chapter and section map for structured reading.
