Digestive System Flashcards
What are the functions of the digestive system?
Ingestion, mechanical processing, digestion, secretion, absorption, excretion.
What are the parts of the GI tract, and what are the accessory organs?
Mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, anus.
Accessory organs: teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, pancreas.
What is the difference between monogastrics and ruminants?
Monogastrics have a single true stomach with one chamber. Ruminants have multiple compartments.
What are the four major layers of the GI tract wall, from inside to outside?
Mucosa, submucosa, muscularis externa, serosa.
What type of tissue is the mucosa made of? Is it vascular?
The digestive epithelium is made of epithelium (obviously) and the lamina propria is areolar tissue, which contains blood and lymph vessels and sensory nerve endings.
What are rugae?
Longitudinal folds that disappear as the tract fills
What are plicae?
Circular permanent transverse folds
What is the purpose of all the folds in the digestive tract?
They increase the surface area available for absorption.
What type of tissue makes up the submucosa? Is it vascular?
Dense irregular connective tissue. Contains large blood and lymphatic vessels and exocrine glands, and a network of nerve fibers.
What is the muscularis externa made of? What does it do?
It’s made of smooth muscle cells that form an inner circular layer and an outer longitudinal layer. It plays an essential role in mechanical processing and the movement of materials. Its movements are coordinated primarily by neurons of the myenteric plexus.
What is the serosa?
A serous membrane
What is peristalsis?
Circular muscle contractions that create wavelike movement along the tract and propel digestive tract contents along the tube ahead of them.
What is segmentation?
Periodic circular muscle contractions that occur in different adjacent sites and mix digestive tract contents and slow their movement through the tract.
What are the two types of neural mechanisms that control digestive function?
Short reflexes and long reflexes.
Tell me about short reflexes.
The sensory neurons, interneurons, and motor neurons are all located in the myenteric plexus. They coordinate local peristalsis and trigger the secretion of digestive glands in one region of the digestive tract.
Tell me about long reflexes.
They involve interneurons and motor neurons in the CNS, and control large-scale peristaltic waves
Tell me about hormonal mechanisms that control digestive function.
There are at least 18 hormones produced by the digestive tract that affect every aspect of digestive function and may affect the activities of the other systems.
Tell me about what local mechanisms do to control digestive function.
Local factors, like pH, and physical and chemical stimulations, affect adjacent cells within a small segment of the digestive tract.
What are the functions of the oral (buccal) cavity?
Analysis of foods, mechanical processing, lubrication by mixing with mucus and salivary secretions, and initiating the digestion of carbs and lipids by the enzymes of salivary glands.
What are the three pairs of salivary glands and what do they produce?
The parotid glands produce amylase, the submandibular glands secrete a mixture of buffers, glycoproteins, and amylase, and the sublingual glands produce lingual lipase.
What are the functions of the monogastric stomach?
Bulk storage of ingested food, mechanical breakdown of ingested food, and disruption of chemical bonds in food via acids and enzymes
What is chyme made of?
Ingested food + the secretions of the stomach. Highly acidic.
What are the five regions of the monogastric stomach?
The cardia, the fundus, the body, the pyloric antrum, and the pylorus.
What do gastric pits contain?
Gastric glands, which secrete gastric juices.
What do parietal cells secrete?
Hydrochloric acid
What do chief cells secrete?
Pepsinogen
What is the active version of pepsinogen?
Pepsin
What do G cells secrete?
Gastrin, which stimulates the secretion of both parietal and chief cells, and the contraction of the gastric wall
What are the three phases of gastric activity?
The cephalic phase, the gastric phase, and the intestinal phase
What triggers the cephalic phase?
Sight, smell, taste, or thoughts of food
What is the function of the cephalic phase?
To prepare the stomach for the arrival of food
What is the duration of the cephalic phase?
Minutes