Unit 5 Flashcards
What are the 6 functions of the digestive system?
- Ingestion
- Digestion (mechanical and chemical)
- Secretion (mucus, HCl, enzymes, hormones)
- Movement (peristaltic movement of food through tract)
- Absorption
- Excretion
** Mnemonic: What month is it? “IDS MAE**”
What are the layers of the GI tract wall?
- Mucosa (inner epithelial layer)
- Submucosa (blood, lymph, nerves)
- Muscularis Externa (inner circular, outer longitudinal)
- Serosa (supportive outer CT)
Mnemonic: Ms. Mess (M, S, ME, S)
How is mechanical digestion performed?
by chewing and muscular contractions of the stomach/intestines
What is the term for smooth muscle movement of food through the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus?
Peristalsis
What are the two layers of the muscularis externa and how do they act on food/chyme within the GI tract?
Inner Circular - contracts/relaxes to tighten/loosen around chyme rhythmically moving food along the length of GI tract and also mixing chyme to increase enzyme action, etc.
Outer Longitudinal - contracts/relaxes to shorten/lengthen segments of tract, contributing to peristaltic movement along the tract
What special structures does the oral cavity contain and why?
What kind of secretions are released here and what is the pH?
Teeth & Tongue - mechanical digestion
Salivary Glands - moistening the bolus
Saliva is secreted which contains mucus, water, antibacterial enzymes and amylase, which starts starch breakdown and operates at the oral cavity pH of 6-7
What kind of cells line the oral cavity?
Why?
Stratified Squamous Epithelium
- undergoes fast mitosis to grow back and protect from food abrasion
What is the name of the passage between the oral cavity and stomach?
What cells line it?
How long is it?
What is special about its muscularis externa layer?
Esophagus
- simple squamous epithelium
- about b long
- Muscularis layer is top 1/3 skeletal, middle 1/3 mixed and bottom 1/3 smooth muscle for voluntary/involuntary control of swallowing
What kind of cells line the stomach?
What is its pH?
How is it able to hold a whole meal’s worth of food
What is special about its muscularis externa and why?
Simple Columnar Epithelium
pH 2
mucosal folds called rugae allow for expansion
Muscularis has inner oblique, middle circular and outer longitudinal layers for better churning of food and jacknife contractions to move chyme into the pyloric region and through the pyloric sphincter into the duodenum
What are the absorptive features of the small intestine?
And what is their function?
- Microvilli - cytoplasmic extensions of the apical end of epithelial cells
- Villi - larger folds in the mucosa itself
- Circular folds - “plicae circulares”, even larger folds in the submocsa
Increase the surface area of the GI tract.
What is the structure that separates the stomach from the small intestine?
And what specific parts of the stomach and small intestine does it separate/connect?
Pyloric Sphincter
** **controls passage of food from the pyloric region of the stomach to the duodenum of the SI
what is the enlarged portion of the stomach that extends slightly superior to and left of where the esophagus and stomach meet?
fundus
what is the structure that separates the stomach from the esophagus?
gastroesophageal sphincter
What are the 4 main types of cells in the gastric epithelium?
their major functions?
- **mucus cells - **secrete mucus
- chief cells - secrete pepsinogen (which becomes pepsin in HCl)
- parietal cells - secrete HCl
- enteroendocrine cells - secretes gastrin, increasing gastric activity
what is the name of the liquid slurry of food that has been chewed, churned and acidified by the stomach?
chyme
what kinds of cells line the small intestine?
simple columnar epithelium
What are the 3 sections of the small intestine and their approximate length and function?
- Duodenum - 1 foot, enzymatic action & digestion
- Jejunum - 8 feet, digestion & absorption
- Ileum - 12 feet, primarily absorption
What are the accessory organs of the digestive system?
Liver
Gallbladder
Pancreas
What is the digestive function of the liver and gallbladder?
the liver turns bilirubin into bile salts
** **the gallbladder stores and concentrates bile by reabsorbing some electrolytes and water from it
when a fatty meal is ingested, the gallbladder releases bile into the duodenum via the common bile duct