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Let’s get started. What is assimilation?

Let’s look at the definition of assimilation first. Assimilation is a process where the products of digestion are incorporated
and utilized in the cell. It means that after our food is digested, it will be absorbed into our body cells and used by our
body cells, and this process when our body uses the nutrient to do something is called the process of assimilation.

As you can see in the pictures, we are going to start with the food that we eat. Normally, the food that we eat consists of
three main classes: carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. These main clusters of food will go through our digestive system
before being digested by the enzyme into the monomer. So, after the digestion in our small intestine, we should have the
glucose, the amino acid, and the glycerol and fatty acid.

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Once the food is digested into their respective monomers, this nutrient is going to be absorbed into the circulatory
system, and for the human circulatory system, we involve two systems: the first one will be the blood circulatory system,
so this vessel is named the blood capillary, and the second one will be our lymphatic system, and this is called the lacteal.

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Now let’s start with the blood circulatory system. The nutrients that will be carried by the blood capillaries will be those
that are soluble in water. For example, glucose and amino acids will move into the vocabulary, and then they will be
carried to the largest organ in our body, which is the liver. As I mentioned just now, this blood capillary will carry the
glucose and amino acids to the liver through the hepatic portal vein, so this vein is being called the hepatic portal vein.
What is hepatic? Hepatic in biology means liver, so basically the function of this vein is to carry blood from the digestive
system to the liver.

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So, come back to the glucose, which will be sent to the liver for examination, and the amino acid, which will be sent to
the liver for assimilation. Once the liver receives the glucose and the amino acid, stimulation of the process will happen
in the liver. So, let’s start with glucose. When the liver cell digests the glucose, we use the glucose to do cellular
respiration. So why do they want to do cell respiration? The liver is just like a normal cell; they need energy when they
want to do work, so glucose can provide the liver with energy when they are doing cell respiration. So sometimes, when
we take too much glucose, we say that when glucose is in excess in our body, our liver will convert the glucose into
glycogen, which will be stored in the liver. So, let’s say our blood does not contain enough glucose; this glycogen will be
converted back to glucose and used for cellular respiration.

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Now let’s go to the amino acid. In the liver, we will take the amino acid to synthesize the plasma protein. Basically,
plasma protein is a protein that can be found in the plasma for a number of reasons, like albumin, which can maintain
the osmotic pressure in our blood. Sometimes, when we eat extra protein, we will say that we have an excess of amino
acids in our body. Protein is not like glucose; it cannot be stored in the liver, so this amino acid must be removed from
our body. So, the first thing our liver will do is carry out a process called de-elimination. For those who do know what
elimination means, it means the removal of the amino group, which will be converted into urea. Remember, this process
happens in our liver. Urea is in our urine, so if we want to remove the urea, we are going to excrete it through the kidney.
That’s all for the assimilation in the liver.
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Now, don’t forget that other body cells that also need glucose and amino acids to carry out their functions send the
glucose and amino acids to the heart through the vein. The heart pumps blood to the blood capillaries. So, what kinds of
nutrients do we have in our blood? We have glucose and amino acids.

So, the glucose from the blood capillaries will enter the cell. So, we use the glucose to do cellular respiration, and this
process is called assimilation. Assimilation happens in the cell; again, the cell is going to take the glucose to do cell
respiration. The same goes for the amino acid; the amino acid will also move into the cell, and the cell is going to use the
amino acid to repair the damaged cell. For example, to produce the hormone and enzyme, one must produce the
protoplasm, which is the nucleus and the cytoplasm.

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After this, let’s move on to the fats. Just now, glucose and amino acids will move into the blood capillaries and be sent to
the liver and the body cells. So, now that we are going to learn how glycerol and fatty acids are sent to our body cells,
any nutrients that are related to fats, and all the nutrients that can dissolve in the fats that will move into the lactic for
example, we have the fats now. Remember, the nutrients that move into the lactic are not glycerol and fatty acids, but
the fats, but why? Remember that glycerol and fatty acids will recombine during the process of absorption. So, in the
end, the combination of glycerol and fatty acids, which are the fats, will be absorbed into the lactose.

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Now we will see how lacteal transports the fats to the sour. First of all, we have two vectors here: this is the lacteal and
this is also another lacteal. These two lacteals will join together and they will form a larger tube for the lymph vessel, so
again, we are going to have another lymph cell, so this is another lymph vessel. These two lymph vessels will join
together to form an even larger tube called the thoracic duct. This thoracic duct will carry the fats to the back end, so this
is the dead end of the thoracic duct. When the fats come to this, they will move the veins of the blood circulatory
system, and this vein is being called the left subclavian vein. As we all know, a vein is the blood vessel that carries the
blood towards the heart, so the left subclavian vein with the fats inside will bring the blood towards the heart. Once the
blood reaches the heart, the heart will start to pump the blood through the blood capillaries. So, this lipid is going to be
taken by the cell, and the cell is going to use the fats to make plasma membrane assimilation happen.