Lecture 12: Digestion Flashcards
The digestive system consists of what two things?
1) Digestive tract
2) Accessory digestive organs
1) What are the accessory digestive organs?
2) What type of glands are they? Where are they?
3) Where do they secrete?
1) Salivary glands, exocrine pancreas, liver, gallbladder
2) Exocrine glands outside of the tract
3) Into the digestive lumen
The GI tract is 15 feet long and consists of what 12 parts?
Mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum, appendix, colon, rectum, anus
Is the GI tract continuous or separate? Why?
Continuous but separate; due to regional modifications
1) Where in the GI tract and digestive system is there striated muscle? (5 places)
2) What is everywhere else?
1) Mouth, pharynx, upper esophagus, external anal sphincter, pelvic floor
2) Smooth muscle
1) What is the lumen a part of?
2) What does this allow?
1) The external environment
2) The tract to tolerate conditions the rest of the body cannot tolerate
What are the 4 reasons why lumen exists?
1) pH of 2 in stomach
2) Digestive enzymes that would break down body tissues
3) Quadrillions of microorganisms that would be harmful or even lethal elsewhere
4) Food that would cause immune responses (and sometimes does in pathological cases)
What are the 4 layers of the GI tract?
1) Mucosa (3 layers)
2) Submucosa
3) Muscularis externa
4) Serosa
1) The mucosa has 3 layers, but what is the primary layer? What does it do?
2) What does mucosa have the ability to do?
1) Mucous membrane; serves as protective surface
2) Can can secret and/or absorb in certain areas
1) What is the submucosa?
2) What property does it provide?
3) What does it contain?
1) Thick layer of connective tissue
2) Elasticity
3) Larger vessels and nerves
1) What is the muscularis externa?
2) What does it consist of?
3) What constricts the tube?
4) What shortens the tube?
5) What does the muscularis externa facilitate?
1) Smooth muscle coat
2) Circular and longitudinal layers
3) Circular muscles
4) Longitudinal layers
5) Propulsion and mixing
1) What is the serosa?
2) What does it secrete? What does this prevent?
3) What is it continuous with? What does this do?
1) Outer connective tissue
2) A slippery watery serous fluid; friction
3) Mesentery; suspends organs from cavity wall
What prevent reflux between specialized compartments?
Sphincters
List 6 sphincters of the digestive system
1) Upper Esophageal Sphincter
2) Lower Esophageal Sphincter
3) Pyloric Sphincter
4) Ileocecal Sphincter
5) Anal Sphincter
6) Sphincter of Oddi
1) What is motility?
2) What is responsible for most of the movement in the digestive tract? Where is it not responsible for movement?
1) Muscular contractions that mix and move contents
2) Smooth muscle, except the beginning and the end
1) Is the digestive tract’s smooth muscle phasic or tonic? Explain.
2) What is this important for?
1) Digestive tract smooth muscle is phasic (bursts of contractions) but also maintains low level tone
2) Important for steady pressure on contents and returning from distension
List and describe the 2 types of motility
1) Propulsive
-Pushes contents forward
2) Mixing:
-Mixes food with digestive juices
-Facilitates absorption by exposing different parts of food to absorbing surfaces
1) What do exocrine glands do in the digestive system?
2) What do the secretory cells of these glands extract?
3) Why?
1) Secrete digestive juices into the lumen
2) Large volumes of water and raw material from plasma
3) Used to form secretions such as bile salts, mucus, enzymes
1) What happens to exocrine gland fluid?
2) What cells do endocrine tissue of GI tract involve?
1) Fluid is only borrowed; returned to blood unless lost through vomiting or diarrhea
2) Cells throughout the length of the tract
1) Are endocrine tissues of the digestive tract well organized?
2) What do they produce?
1) Not in discrete organization like peripheral endocrine tissues
2) Range of signal proteins called GI hormones or GI peptides
1) Define digestion
2) What 3 things are too large to be absorbed from the lumen?
1) Chemically reducing complex materials into smaller absorbable units
2) Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats
List and describe the 2 types of carbohydrates. What type makes up most carbs?
1) Polysaccharides: most ingested carbs, long chains of sugars
2) Monosaccharides: simplest sugars. Rarely found in diet in this form; glucose, fructose, galactose
Glucose, fructose, galactose are examples of what?
Monosaccharides
Where does most absorption take place?
Small intestine
What are proteins? What are they degraded in digestion into?
Combinations of amino acids held by peptide bonds, into AAs or small polypeptides
1) What are most dietary fats?
2) What does digestion split? What does this leave?
3) What is absorbed?
1) Triglycerides (glycerol with three fatty acid molecules)
2) Two of these; a monoglyceride
3) Fatty acids
1) Where does most absorption occur?
2) What 4 things are transferred into the blood or lymph during this?
1) In the small intestine
2) Nutrients, water, vitamins, and electrolytes
There are four factors involved in regulating digestive system function; what are they? [hint: muscle, nerve, plexus, hormones]
1) Autonomous smooth muscle function
2) Intrinsic nerve plexuses
3) Extrinsic nerves
4) GI hormones
1) What is the function of autonomous smooth muscle?
2) What is this called?
1) Rhythmic cycles of depolarization and repolarization
2) Basic electrical rhythm (BER)
1) What layer of the smooth muscle has pacemaker cells?
2) Are slow-waves action potentials? Explain
1) Muscularis externa
2) No, but their peaks may trigger volley of action potentials
1) The muscularis externa of smooth muscle has pacemaker cells; what are they called and what do they generate?
2) Define what is generated.
1) Cells of Cajal; generate slow-wave potentials
2) Self-excitable activity in which membrane potential undergoes alternating depolarization and repolarization
1) How do slow-waves propagate?
2) What happens at threshold?
3) What does autonomous smooth muscle do when not at threshold?
1) Via gap junctions
2) The entire muscle sheet behaves as one
3) Oscillates between depolarization and hyperpolarization
There are two major nerve fiber networks that run along length of GI tract; what are they? What does each provide?
1) Submucosal plexus: secret motor innervation to mucosa)
2) Myenteric plexus: provides motor innervation to muscular layer
1) What nerve plexus functions as GI system’s own nervous system?
2) How many neurons does it contain?
3) Does it self-regulate? What is this called?
1) Intrinsic (myenteric) nerve plexus
2) As many as the spinal cord
3) Considerable degree of self-regulation; enteric nervous system
What are the two parts of the enteric nervous system?
What does each do? What makes up each?
1) Intrinsic afferent neurons: sensory neurons responding to local stimuli
2) Intrinsic efferent neurons: affect motility, secretion, etc.
1) What are extrinsic nerves? What do they do?
2) How do they do this?
1) Nerve fibers from autonomic nervous system that regulate GI tract function
2) Can modify motility or secretion directly or by acting on intrinsic plexuses
What are the two types of stimulation from extrinsic nerves? What does each do?
1) Sympathetic stimulation: Inhibits tract contraction and secretion
2) Parasympathetic stimulation: Enhances digestion
1) What produces GI hormones?
2) What do GI hormones do?
1) Endocrine cells from different regions of the tract
2) Cause excitatory and inhibitory influences on smooth muscle and gland cells
There are 3 types of sensory receptors in the tract wall; what are they? What is each sensitive to?
What does stimulation of any of these receptors do?
1) Chemoreceptors sensitive to lumen contents
2) Mechanoreceptors sensitive to stretch or tension in the wall
3) Osmoreceptors sensitive to osmolarity of luminal contents
-Receptor stimulation results in effector actions and/or neural reflexes
What are the 3 types of effector cells of the GI system? What does each regulate?
1) Smooth muscle cells: motility
2) Exocrine cells: secretions
3) Endocrine cells: hormones
What are the two types of GI reflexes? What is the difference between the two?
1) Short reflex: located within GI tract
2) Long reflex: involves CNS
1) Where does digestion start? Does a lot of it occur here? 2) Does food absorption occur here?
3) What absorption does occur here?
1) Mouth; is minimal (amylase)
2) No, no food absorption in mouth
3) Some medications
1) What does the mouth do to food?
2) What makes up saliva?
3) Does saliva have glucose? What enhances sweet and salty tastes?
1) Moistens food, causing it to be lubricated and also making it stick to itself
2) 99.5% H2O, 0.5% electrolytes and protein
3) No glucose; 1/7th NaCl compared to plasma, enhancing sweet and salty tastes
List 2 important proteins found in the saliva
Amylase and lysozyme
1) What does salivary amylase do?
2) What is lysozyme?
3) What does antibodies does lysozyme contain? What else do they contain and what do these do?
1) Salivary amylase begins digestion of dietary starches
2) Lysozyme, salivary antimicrobial that breaks down bacterial cell walls
3) IgA antibodies and lactoferrin; bind to iron that bacteria need
1) What does saliva do for oral hygiene?
2) What is saliva rich in? What does this do?
3) What does saliva help prevent?
1) Flushes food residue and foreign particles
2) Bicarb; neutralizes acid from foods and bacteria
3) Dental caries
1) How much saliva is secreted a day?
2) At what rate?
3) What is the max salivary rate in response to potent stimuli like sucking a lemon?
1) 1-2L
2) Continuous basal rate of 0.5mL/min
3) Maximum 5mL/min
Saliva production is increased by two types of salivary reflexes; what are they?
Simple salivary reflex and conditioned salivary reflex
1) What is the conditioned salivary reflex also called?
2) When does it occur?
1) Acquired.
2) Occurs without oral stimulation. “Mouth-watering” anticipation.
1) What triggers the simple salivary reflex?
2) What impulse is sent by this trigger? Where to and for what effect?
1) Oral stimulation (chemo- and pressure receptors)
2) Afferent impulse to salivary center in brain stem; increases salivation
1) What promote salivation?
2) What does parasympathetic stimulation do to salivation?
3) What does sympathetic stimulation do to salivation?
1) Both sympathetic and parasympathetic stimulation promotes salivation
2) Watery saliva rich with enzymes
3) Thick saliva rich in mucus
1) What is the pharynx?
2) What is it the common passageway for?
3) What does it contain?
4) What does its motility lead to?
1) Cavity at the rear of the throat
2) Common passageway for digestive and respiratory systems
3) Tonsils
4) Swallowing
1) What receptors are responsible for motility of the pharynx (swallowing)?
2) What impulses do they send? To where?
3) Is swallowing all or none?
1) Pharyngeal pressure receptors
2) Afferent to the swallowing center of the brain stem
3) Yes
1) What does the esophagus begin and end with?
2) What are these?
1) Begins and ends with a sphincter muscle
2) Pharyngoesophageal sphincter and gastroesophageal sphincter
1) Where is the pharyngoesophageal sphincter?
2) What does it do?
1) Upper end of esophagus
2) Prevents air from entering digestive tract