Intermediate and long-term regulation of acid-base homeostasis.

The first part of this two-part article (Clancy and McVicar, 2007) identified acid and alkaline buffers in the body fluids as the body's short-term homeostatic mechanisms involved in maintaining the 'acid-base homeostasis' of body fluids. The second part of this article explores the respiratory and renal systems as the respective intermediate and long-term homeostatic mechanisms involved in maintaining acid-base homeostasis. It also discusses what happens if these mechanisms fail.