Physiology - General GIT Flashcards
What is the primary function of the digestive system?
- to transfer nutrients, H2O, and electrolytes from the food we eat into the body’s internal environment
List the 5 steps involved in nutrient acquisition.
- ingestion –> digestion –> absorption –> distribution –> usage
What are the 4 basic digestive processes?
- motility, secretion, digestion, and absorption
T or F: digestive motility involves smooth muscle and is therefore always autonomic.
- false!
- while autonomic (and smooth muscle) for the majority of the digestive system, motility involving the mouth and anus is voluntary (with skeletal muscle)
Our nutrients are derived from the digestion of which 3 compounds? What is mechanism involved in their digestion?
- carbohydrates, proteins, and fats
- process: enzymatic hydrolysis
What are the accessory digestive organs?
- salivary glands, exocrine pancreas, and the biliary system (liver and gallbladder)
Approximately how long is the GIT?
- about 15 feet
Name the 4 layers (from innermost to outermost) of the GIT.
- (innermost) mucosa –> submucosa –> muscularis externa –> serosa/adventitia (outermost)
What are the three layers of the mucosa?
- mucous membrane (inner epithelial layer): protection and absorption
- lamina propria (middle connective tissue): support and contains the GALT (gut-associated lymphoid tissue)
- muscularis mucosa (outer smooth muscle): motility
The submucosa is a thick layer of __________. What does it contain?
- thick layer of connective tissue
- contains the blood and lymph vessels, and the submucosal (Meissner) nerve plexus right below the muscularis muscosa
What does the muscularis externa contain?
- an inner circular layer of smooth muscle, and outer longitudinal layer of smooth muscle, and the myenteric (Auerbach) nerve plexus in between
What is the serosa? What does it secrete? What is it continuous with?
- an outer connective tissue covering
- secretes a slippery serous fluid (lubrication b/w the digestive organs and surrounding viscera)
- is continuous with the mesentery
Which 4 factors regulate digestive function (motility and secretion)?
- autonomous smooth muscle function, the intrinsic nerve plexuses, the extrinsic nerves, and gastrointestinal hormones
What is autonomous smooth muscle function? What does it create? What type of wave potentials are generated?
- 1 of 4 factors that regulate digestive function
- self-induced electrical activity that creates the GIT’s basic electrical rhythm (BER)
- (stomach: 3 waves/min, duodenum: 12, ileum: 8-9)
- involves the generation of slow-wave potentials
What generates the basic electrical rhythm (BER)? Where is this found?
- the pacemaker cells: interstitial cells of Cajal
- they are found between the inner circular and outer longitudinal layers of smooth muscle in the muscularis externa