Digestive system and Liver Flashcards
What is digestion?
The breakdown of food to a useful form that can be absorbed and used by cells – liberating useful components (amino acids, fatty acids, glucose and nucleotides)
What is food used for?
- Energy creation in cellular respiration – catabolism (break down of molecules) to produce ATP
- Repair and building – production of building blocks – known as anabolism
How is food broken down?
- Mechanical – physical breakdown – mastication and churning
- Chemical - acids, surfactants and enzymes
What are the two divisions of the digestive system?
- Alimentary canal (tube like structure including small and large intestine, rectum mouth to anus)
- Accessory organs – outside GI tract (biliary tract and liver (gallbladder bile ducts), pancreas (digestive enzymes), salivary glands)
What is the process of digestive system?
- Ingestion (eating)
- Propulsion (moving)
- Digestion (mechanical, chemical)
- Absorption (into bloodstream)
- Defecation (avoiding waste materials)
What are the components of saliva?
- 99% water (change in sympathetic and parasympathetic (more watery)
- Amylase (starch breakdown into simple sugers like glucose)
- Lingual lipase (breakdown fatty materials and control growth of bacteria)
- Antibodies \lysozyme (immune system)
- Defensins (perforin (break membrane)
- ‘friendly bacteria’
What are the layers of the GI tract wall?
- Outer = serosa
- Muscularis – muscular
- Submucosa
- Mucosa – secrets enzymes and mucus into the lumen and absorptive
What is the serosa layer of the the GI tract wall?
(adventitia)
- bounding defining membrane epithelium
- more fibrous when attached to body walls it becomes adventitia here
- can stretch to accommodate food
- Outer layer
What is the muscularis layer of the GI tract wall?
Two muscular (nervous supply)
1. Longitudinal muscle - layers giving tone and help gut change length
2. Circular muscle – churing process called segmentation – processes peristalsis (muscular wave moving food down)
- Onward movement
- Regulated by sphincters
What is the submucosa layer of the GI tract wall?
- Rich blood supply and associated with nerve supply
- Contains mucus glands dumping mucus through glandular tubes into gut
- Rich lymphatic supply for secretory glands (mucus production and digestive juices)
- Rich nervous supply
- Lymph vessels and lymphoid tussis
What is the mucosa layer of the GI tract wall?
- Protective and for absorption
- muscularis mucosae(longitudinal muscle) – tone to push lumen layer into spiralised folds
- Mucosal lining - simple columnar epithelium around lumen – goblet cells (mucus secretion) – enzyme secretion and hormone secretion
- Lamina propria - areolar connective tissue layer rich capillary supply for absorption – contains lymphoid tissue (/folicus) act as early warning system to immune system containing macrophages and dendritic cells
What are the three layers of the mucosa?
- Muscularis mucosae
- Mucosal lining
- Lamina propria
What is chyme?
- In lumen
- Food that is digesting as well as enzymes and mucus
- Food in the process of digestion
What are Mesenteries and lymph nodes?
- Continuous with saros
- Provides rich blood, nervous system and lymphatic drainage supply
- Keeps GI tract suspended
What is peristalsis?
- Using circular muscles – contracting pushing bolus of good in peristatic wave down the oesophagus and to the stomach
- Controlled by nervous system – enteric nervous system – local reflex arcs between receptors and motor activators of muscles
- Contracting and relaxation of muscle
- Autonomic NS has overall control of amount of digestion however enteric local reflex’s in control of peristalsis
What are the Two Intrinsic nerve plexuses – in wall of gut?
- Myenteric (Auerbach’s) plexus – main muscular - motor (symp and parasympathetic)
- Submucosal (Meissner’s) Plexus – secretomotor (para onlu) – controls glands for digestice juices
What is the enteric nervous system?
- Secondary brain – in gut
- Diffuse net of nerve cells as not same compact setup as central nervous system
- Semi automatic of gut mobility
What is the oesophagus?
- Up to 30cm
- Conveys food from oropharynx to stomach
- Mucosa subject to considerable friction
- Thick protective squamous epithelium – sloughs off to prevent friction – 10-40% of faeses is made of body cells
How does structure effecting the function of oseophagus?
Passage of food facilitated by:
- Flattening of mucosal folds
- Mucous glands
- Loose and elastic submucosa