Chapter 24 Flashcards
What does the digestive system do?
Acquires nutrients from environment
What is anabolism?
Used to synthesize essential compounds
What is catabolism?
Broken down to provide energy to cells
What is in the digestive tract?
- GI tract or alimentary canal
- Muscular tube
- Extends from oral cavity to anus
What is ingestion?
Getting food into the body
What is mechanical digestion and propulsion?
Physical breakdown
What is chemical digestion?
Chemical breakdown
Where is secretion?
In the liver and pancreas
What is absorption?
Mesentery
What are the 6 integrated processes of the digestive system?
- Ingestion
- Mechanical Digestion/Propulsion
- Chemical Digestion
- Secretion
- Absorption
- Defecation
What is the lining of digestive tract?
- Safeguards surrounding tissues
- Corrosive effects of digestive acids, bases, and enzymes
- Bacteria either ingested with food or that reside in digestive tract
What is peritoneum?
- Serous membrane lining peritoneal cavity
- Superficial mesothelium covering a layer of areolar tissue
What is visceral peritoneum? (serosa)
Covers organs within peritoneal cavity
What is parietal peritoneum?
Lines inner surfaces of body wall
What do mesenteries do?
Provide a route to and from digestive tract for blood vessels, nerves, and lymphatic vessels
What is the lesser omentum?
- Stabilizes position of stomach
- Provides access route for blood vessels and other structures entering or leaving liver
What is the dorsal mesentery?
- Enlarges to form an enormous pouch, the greater omentum
- Extends inferiorly between body wall and anterior surface of small intestine
- Hangs like an apron from lateral and inferior borders of stomach
What is the adipose tissue in greater omentum?
- Contributes to “beer belly”
- Visceral fat (fat around the organs)
What are the major layers of digestive tract?
- Mucosa (always innermost)
- Submucosa
- Muscular layer
- Serosa (always outermost)
What is the mucosa?
Inner lining of digestive tract
What does the mucous membrane consist of?
- Epithelium, moistened by glandular secretions
- Lamina propria of areolar tissue
- Muscular muscularis mucosae
What is the major job of mucosa?
Secretion
What epithelium does mucosal have?
Simple or stratified
What epithelium does oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, and anal canal have?
Stratified squamous epithelium
What epithelium does stomach, small intestine, most of large intestine have?
Simple columnar epithelium
What is lamina propria?
A layer of areolar connective tissue that contains:
1. Blood vessels
2. Sensory nerve endings
3. Lymphatic vessels
4. Smooth muscle cells
5. Scattered lymphatic tissue
What is muscularis mucosae?
Narrow sheet of smooth muscle and elastic fibers
What is submucosa?
- Layer of dense irregular connective tissue
- May contain exocrine glands
- Secrete buffers and enzymes into digestive tract
What is submucosal neural plexus?
Think of these as mini-brains
What is in the submucosal neural plexus?
Sensory neurons, parasympathetic ganglionic neurons, and sympathetic postganglionic fibers
What is the muscular layer involved in?
- Involved in mechanical digestion and moving materials along digestive tract
- Movements coordinated by enteric nervous system (ENS)
What is the myenteric plexus?
CONTROLS THE MUSCLES THAT MOVE FOOD
What is the motility of digestive tract?
Wave of contraction spreads throughout entire muscular sheet (peristalsis)
What is peristalsis?
Waves of muscular contractions that move a bolus along length of digestive tract
What is segmentation?
- Cycles of contraction that churn and fragment the bolus
- Mixing contents with intestinal secretions
What are local factors?
pH, volume, or chemical composition (enzymes) of intestinal contents
What can pH, volume, or chemical composition (enzymes) of intestinal contents have?
Can have direct, localized effects on digestive activity
What does the stretching of intestinal wall indicate? (increased volume)
- Major cue to stop eating
- Can stimulate localized contractions
What are visceral motor neurons?
- Control smooth muscle contraction and glandular secretion
- Located in myenteric plexus (enteric NS)
What are short reflexes?
- local reflexes
- control small segments of digestive tract
- Operate entirely outside of CNS control
What are long reflexes?
Stimulate large-scale peristalsis
What are hormonal mechanisms?
- enteroendocrine cells in digestive tract produce many peptide hormones (product)
- Affect almost every aspect of digestion
What is sensory analysis?
Of food before swallowing
What is mechanical digestion?
Through actions of teeth, tongue, and palatal surfaces
What is lubrication?
By mixing with mucus and saliva
What is limited chemical digestion?
Of carbohydrates and lipids