Digestive System

Dr. Christopher James

Macario
Finals

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EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

After the discussion the students will

know:
1.The functions of the DIGESTIVE
SYSTEM
2.The digestive process
3.The organs of the gastrointestinal tract
4.The digestive hormones
 Functions Digestive System
• Ingestion of food
• Digestion of food
– mechanical digestion
– chemical digestion
• Propulsion
– peristalsis
– segmentation (mainly churns and mixes)
• Secretion
• Absorption
• Elimination of wastes (defecation)

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 Quick Introduction
• We eat food:
-to obtain energy to stay alive
-to get raw materials required for building all
of our tissues.
• Both the food and your- have energy
stored in the bonds between those atoms.
• The GI system is like a donut
• The secret to digestion is maximizing
surface area (Food and GI system).
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• Your body needs the food you eat and
turns it into something the body can use.
• The body breaks down food into its
simplest form so it can be used:
– Carbohydrates
– Proteins
– Lipids
– Nucleic acid

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 General Structure and Functions
of the Digestive System
• The GI tract organs:
– oral cavity
– pharynx
– esophagus
– stomach
– small intestine
– large intestine
• A continuous tube about 30 feet (9–10 meters) from the
mouth to the anus (longer in dead than living).
• Smooth muscle in most of the GI tract wall pushes
materials from one end to the other.

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 General Structure and Functions
of the Digestive System
• Accessory digestive organs:
– often develop as outgrowths from the tube
and are connected to the GI tract
– assist the GI tract in the digestion of food.
– teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver,
gallbladder, and pancreas

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Organs of the Digestive System

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Digestive Process

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 Oral Cavity (mouth)
• Entrance to the GI tract.
• Initial site of mechanical digestion (via
mastication) and chemical digestion (via
enzymes in saliva: salivary amylase and
lipase).
• Bounded by the teeth and lips, the oropharynx,
the hard and soft palates, and the tongue

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 Palate
• Anterior two-thirds of the palate is the bony hard
palate), while the posterior one-third is the soft
palate, primarily skeletal muscle).
• Extending inferiorly from the posterior part of the
soft palate is the uvula.
• When swallowing, the soft palate and the
uvula elevate to close off the opening of the
nasopharynx.

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 Tongue
• An accessory digestive organ formed from
skeletal muscle and covered with lightly
keratinized stratified squamous epithelium.
• Manipulates and mixes ingested materials
during chewing and
• Helps compress these materials into a bolus.
• Performs important functions in swallowing.

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 Salivary Glands
• Collectively produce and secrete saliva. Most is
produced during mealtime, but smaller amounts
are produced continuously.
• Water makes up 99% of the volume of saliva.
• Also contains a mixture of other components.
• Three pairs of large, multicellular salivary glands

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 The Parotid Glands
• Largest salivary glands.
• Near the ear, partially overlying the masseter
muscle.
• Produce about 25–30% of the saliva.
• Site of mumps

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 The Submandibular Glands

• Inferior to the body of the mandible.

• Produce most of the saliva (about 60–70%).

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 The Sublingual Glands
• Inferior to the tongue and internal to the oral
cavity mucosa.
• Contribute only about 3–5% of the total saliva.

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 Functions of Saliva

• Moistens food and helps turn it into a semisolid bolus

that is more easily swallowed.
• Moistens and cleanses the oral cavity structures.
• First step in chemical digestion occurs when
AMYLASE in saliva begins to break down
carbohydrates. Also a lingual lipase.
• Contains antibodies and antibacterial lysozyme that
help inhibit bacterial growth.
• Watery medium into which food molecules are
dissolved so taste receptors can be stimulated.
• Produce about 1 liter/day.

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 Teeth
• Responsible for mastication (chewing), the first part
of the mechanical digestion process. Increases the
surface area and, therefore, increases the efficiency
of digestive enzymes.
– Incisors and canines cut and tear
– Premolars and molars crush and grind.
• A tooth has an exposed crown, a constricted neck, and
one or more roots that anchor it the jaw.
• Roots of the teeth fit tightly into dental alveoli.

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 Teeth
• Two sets of teeth develop and erupt during a normal
lifetime.
• 20 deciduous teeth, “milk teeth,” erupt between 6
months and 30 months after birth.
• Replaced by 32 permanent teeth.
• The last teeth to erupt are the third molars, “wisdom
teeth,” in the late teens or early 20’s. May be absent.
• Often the jaw lacks space and they may either emerge
only partially or grow at an angle and become impacted.

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 Pharynx (Throat)
• About 5 inches long
• Nasopharynx, oropharynx, and
laryngopharynx

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 Peritoneum and its Extensions
• Greater omentum (do not cut away!)
• Lesser omentum
• Falciform ligament
• Round ligament
• Mesentery
• Mesocolon
• Parietal peritoneum
• Visceral peritoneum

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General Histology of GI Organs
• From the esophagus through the large intestine is a tube of four
concentric layers called tunics:
– the mucosa
• superficial epithelium
• lamina propria: areolar CT
• muscularis mucosa
– the submucosa
• dense irregular CT
• lymphatic tissue in some areas
• mucin-secreting glands
• many large blood vessels and lymphatic vessels
• submucosal nerve plexus (Meissner plexus)
– the muscularis
• two smooth muscle layers typically except in the esophagus and
stomach
• myenteric nerve plexus (Auerbach plexus)
– the adventitia or serosa (covered by visceral peritoneum)

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Tunics of the Abdominal GI
Tract

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Phases of Swallowing

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 Esophagus (Gullet)
• About 10 inches long
• Muscular tube: 1/3 skeletal, 1/3 mixed, and
1/3 smooth
• 2 sphincters regulate food in and out
• Mucus lubricates
• No digestion or absorption!

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 Stomach
• Stratified squamous in esophagus changes
to simple columnar in stomach and stays
simple columnar until the end of the GI tract
where it becomes stratified squamous again.
• Three muscular layers produce mixing waves
• Rugae: deep folds in mucosa and submucosa
• Openings in mucosal folds are gastric pits

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 Stomach Functions
• Storage: 2-6 hours
• Mixing and propulsion: break down bolus into chyme
• Protein digestion begins with pepsin
• HCl kills microbes, pH <2, denatures proteins, and
important in conversion of inactive pepsinogen into
active pepsin
• Little absorption: alcohol and aspirin (they damage
stomach)

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 Stomach Protected by
• Mucus (bile can produce gastritis)
• Tight junctions
• Rapid turnover (every three days)
• Pepsinogen is inactive until activated
by HCl

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 Pyloric Sphincter
• Acts as a “gatekeeper” allowing only small
amounts of chyme to enter duodenum at a
time
• The chyme contains partially digested
carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.

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 Small Intestine
• Finishes the chemical digestion process and is
responsible for absorbing most of the nutrients and most
of the water.
• Chemical and mechanical digestion depend also on
accessory structures: pancreas, liver, and gall bladder.
• Ingested nutrients spend at least 12 hours in the small
intestine as chemical digestion and absorption are completed.
• Coiled, thin-walled tube about 6 meters (20 feet in dead and
10 feet in living) in length.
• Extends from the pylorus of the stomach to the ileocecal valve
between the ileum and the cecum of the large intestine, and
thus occupies a significant portion of the abdominal cavity.

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 Small Intestine
• The duodenum is retroperitoneal, about 25
centimeters (10 inches) long and originates at the
pyloric sphincter.
• The jejunum is about 2.5 meters (7.5 feet)
– primary region for chemical digestion and nutrient
absorption
• The ileum is about 3.6 meters (10.8 feet)
– terminates at the ileocecal valve, a sphincter that
controls the entry of materials into the large intestine.
• Two layers to the muscularis
• Serosa surrounds except for major part of the
duodenum.
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 Small Intestine
• Almost all the digestion and absorption
occur in the small intestine!
– 90% of absorption in SI
– 10% of absorption in stomach and LI
• Large surface area (600x more than if just a
tube)
– 10 feet long
– Plicae circulares (circular folds about 10 mm high)
spiral through
– Villi (0.5 - 1 mm high)
– Microvilli (brush border)
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 Small Intestine
• Mucosal Cavities lined with glandular epithelium
– Intestinal glands (crypts of Lieberkuhn) produce intestinal juice
(1-2 liters/day)
– Paneth cells produce lysozyme and also do phagocytosis
– Goblet cells produce mucus
• Most of the digestion by the SI itself is by brush
border enzymes on the surface or in the lumen. Help
digest proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleotides.
• Submucosa of duodenum has duodenal glands
(Brunner’s glands) that produce an alkaline mucus

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 Absorption in SI
• Active transport mainly into villi and then
diffusion into capillaries then nutrients mainly go
to the liver
• Lipids diffuse into capillaries and lacteals which
lead to cisterna chyli, etc.
– Fat soluble vitamins, ADEK, enter through lipids
• Undigestibles, some water and a lot of bacteria
go through the ileocecal valve to the cecum of
the large intestine.

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 Large Intestine
• About 1.5 meters (5 feet) long and 6.5 centimeters (2.5 inches)
wide.
• Absorbs most of the water and electrolytes from the remaining
digested material.
• Absorbs a very small percentage of nutrients still remaining in the
digested material.
• Vitamin manufacture here by bacteria
• Watery material that first enters the large intestine soon solidifies
and becomes feces.
• Stores this fecal material 3-10 hours until the body is ready to
defecate.
• Composed of four segments:
– the cecum, colon, rectum, anal canal
• Attached to the posterior abdominal wall by the mesocolon.

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 Movements in the Large
Intestine
• Peristalsis - slower than before
• Haustral churning: haustra fill and then
contract
• Mass peristalsis: strong movements 3-
4x/day during or after meal

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 Digestion in LI
• Chemical digestion is bacterial by E. coli not
enzymatic
• Typically, feces has about 25% bacteria. Bacteria in the
SI and LI are in the lumen!
• Bacteria ferment carbohydrates and produce gases
(flatus). Bacteria synthesize B vitamins and vitamin K.
Vitamins are absorbed here.
• Amino acids are broken down to small substances that
have an odor. Some of these go to the liver for
detoxification and leave through the urine
• Bilirubin may be converted to urobilinogen and leave
through the urine or to stercobilin and produce the brown
color of feces
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 Defecation
• Mass peristalsis from the sigmoid colon
initiates defecation reflex (parasympathetic)

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 Accessory Digestive Organs
• The liver, about 3# (heaviest gland)
– composed of four incompletely separated lobes
• Right lobe
• Left lobe
• Caudate lobe
• Quadrate lobe
– supported by two ligaments
• Falciform ligament (attaches to peritoneum)
• Round ligament (ligamentum teres) from umb. vein

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 Functions of The Liver
• Produces bile, an emulsifier, not an enzyme.
– a greenish fluid that breaks down fats into small droplets to
assist in their chemical digestion
• Detoxifies drugs, metabolites, and poisons.
• Stores excess nutrients and vitamins and release them when
they are needed (a key metabolic organ).
• Synthesizes blood plasma proteins such as albumins,
globulins, and proteins required for blood clotting.
• Phagocytizes debris in the blood.
• Helps break down and recycle components of aged
erythrocytes and damaged or worn-out formed elements.
• Helps activate vitamin D along with the skin and kidneys to its
active form.

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 Jaundice
• Yellowish color to skin and mucous
membranes
• Three major types
– Increase production of bilirubin
– Liver disease
– Blockage from stones or cancer in the area
– Also neonatal (physiological) jaundice that
disappears as the liver matures

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 Accessory Digestive Organs
• Gallbladder (about 3-4 inches long)
– concentrates bile produced by the liver and stores this
concentrate until it is needed for digestion
– cystic duct connects the gallbladder to the common bile duct
– can hold approximately 50 milliliters of concentrated bile
– simple columnar with no submucosa
– has rugae
– hormones cause its smooth muscle to contract and release bile
into the cystic duct.

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 Accessory Digestive Organs
• The biliary apparatus.
– network of thin ducts that carry bile from the liver and
gallbladder to the duodenum

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 Accessory Digestive Organs
• Pancreas
– mixed gland: both endocrine and exocrine functions
• Secretes digestive enzymes, collectively called
pancreatic juice (1 1/2 liters/day), into the duodenum.
– 99% of the pancreas are are exocrine acinar cells
– Digests carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and nucleic
acids
– Bicarbonate ions buffer HCl from stomach
– Under hormonal and neural control
• Retroperitoneal

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