DIGESTIVE

SYSTEM
OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
- Consist of group of organs that break down food into smaller
molecules that can be used by the body
- Two groups of organs:
❑Gastrointestinal tract
- mouth, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small & large intestine
❑Accessory digestive organ
- Teeth, tongue, salivary glands, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas
FUNCTIONS
1. Ingestion
2. Secretion
3. Mixing and propulsion
4. Digestion
5. Absorption
6. Defecation
LAYERS OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT
1. Mucosa
- Inner lining of GI tract
- Has three layers:
❑Epithelium – directly in contact
with the contents of the GI tract
❑Lamina propria – connective
tissue with blood and lymphatic
vessels and mucosa-associated
lymphatic tissue
❑Muscularis mucosae – thin
layer of smooth muscles making
folds to increase surface area
LAYERS OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT
2. Submucosa
- Consists of areolar connective
tissue that binds the mucosa to
the muscularis
- Contains many blood and
lymphatic vessel
3. Muscularis
- Produces voluntary
swallowing and involuntary
contractions in the GI lining
LAYERS OF THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACT
4. Serosa/Adventitia
- Serous membrane composed
of areolar connective tissue
and simple squamous
epithelium
- Also called visceral
peritoneum
NEURAL INNERVATION OF THE GI TRACT
1. Enteric Nervous System
- 2 plexuses:
❑Mesenteric
❑Submucosal
2. Autonomic Nervous System
❑Parasympathetic
❑Sympathetic
PERITONEUM
- Largest serous membrane of
the body
- 2 layers:
❑Parietal
❑Visceral
- 5 major peritoneal folds:
❑Greater omentum
❑Falciform ligament
❑Lesser omentum
❑Mesentery
❑Mesocolon
FUNCTIONAL
ANATOMY
MOUTH
- Referred to as the oral or buccal cavity
- Formed by cheeks, hard and soft-palates, and tongue
SALIVARY GLANDS
- Releases saliva into the oral cavity.
- Major salivary glands:
❑Parotid
❑Sublingual
❑Submandibular
SALIVARY GLANDS
Composition of Saliva
- Mostly water 99.5%
- 0.5% solutes (ions, dissolved gases, urea, uric acid, mucus, IgA,
lysozomes and salivary amylase)

• Salivation – act of secreting saliva

TONGUE
- Accessory digestive organ
- Skeletal muscles covered with mucous membrane
❑Intrinsic muscles
- alters shape and size of tongue for speech and swallowing
- Longitudinalis superior, longitudinalis inferior, transversus linguae,
and verticalis linguae
❑Extrinsic muscles
- Moves tongue from side to side, and in and out to maneuver
food for chewing, shaping the food into rounded mass, and
forcing the food to the back of the tongue for swallowing
TONGUE
TEETH
- AKA dentes
- Accessory digestive organ
- Have 3 major regions:
❑Crown
❑Roots
❑Neck
• Dentin – calcified
connective tissues
• Enamel – covers the
dentin
TEETH
Two Dentitions
❑Deciduous teeth
- AKA primary/milk/baby
teeth
❑Permanent teeth
TEETH
Deciduous Teeth
❑Incisors – teeth closest to
midline
- Central or lateral
❑Canines – pointed surface
(cusp)
❑Molars – four cusps
- First and second molars
TEETH
Permanent Teeth
- 32 teeth
- Same pattern as deciduous teeth
except for the following:
❑Premolars – replaces the
deciduous molars
- Bicuspids
- First and Second
❑Permanent Molars
- First, Second, and Thir
PHARYNX
❑Nasopharynx
- Functions only in respiration
❑Oropharynx
- Has both respiratory and digestive function
❑Laryngopharynx
- Has both respiratory and digestive function
ESOPHAGUS
- Collapsible muscular tube
(25cm long)
FUNCTIONS:
1. Secrete mucous
2. Transports food

❑Upper Esophageal Sphincter

– regulates movement into
the eosphagus
❑Lower Esophageal Sphincter
- Regulates movement into the
stomach
DEGLUTITION
- Act of swallowing
- Facilitated by secretions of saliva and mucus
- 3 stages:
❑Voluntary Stage – bolus is passed into the oropharynx
❑Pharyngeal Stage – involuntary passage of the bolus through
the pharynx into the esophagus
❑Esophageal Stage – involuntary passage of the bolus through
the esophagus into the stomach
STOMACH
- J-shaped enlargement of
the GI tract directly
inferior to the
diaphragm in the
abdomen
- Connects the esophagus
to the duodenum (first
part of the small
intestine)
- Serves as a mixing
chamber and a holding
reservoir
STOMACH
Mechanical & Chemical Digestion in the Stomach
• Mechanical Digestion
- Peristaltic waves causes mixture of the grinded food and gastric
juices (CHYME)

• Chemical Digestion
- Involves ions and enzymes to break down food
 CELLS ACTIVITY ACTION
MUCOUS - Secretes mucus - Forms an active barrier that prevents digestion of stomach
CELLS wall
- Absorption
- Small quantity of water, ions, short-chain fatty acids, and
some drugs enter the blood stream
PARIETAL - Secretes intrinsic - Needed for absorption of Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin)
CELLS factor
- Kills microbes
- Secretes HCl - Denatures proteins
- Converts pepsinogen to pepsin
CHIEF CELLS - Secretes - Becomes pepsin (breaks down proteins into peptides
pepsinogen
- Splits triglycerides into fatty acids and monoglycerides
- Secretes gastric
lipase
G-CELLS - Secrete gastrin - Stimulates parietal cells to secrete HCl and chief cells to
secrete pepsinogen
PANCREAS
- Lies posterior to the greater
curvature of the stomach
❑Pancreatic Juice
- Clear, colorless fluid that is
secreted by exocrine ducts
into small ducts that join to
form the pancreatic duct and
accessory duct
- Contains enzymes
PANCREAS
❑Pancreatic Juice
1. Starch-digesting Enzyme
- Pancreatic amylase
2. Protein-digesting Enzymes
- Trypsin
- Chymotrypsin
- Carboxypeptidase
- Elastase
3. Triglyceride-digesting Enzyme
- Pancreatic lipase
4. Nucleic acid-digesting Enzymes
- Ribonuclease
- Deoxyribonuclease
PANCREAS
❑Pancreatic Duct
- Larger duct
- Joins the common bile duct from
the liver and gallbladder and enters
the duodenum -> hepatopancreatic
ampulla
❑Accessory Duct
- Directly empties to the duodenum
LIVER & GALLBLADDER
LIVER
- Heaviest gland of the bpdy
(1.4kg)
- Located inferior to the
diaphragm
GALLBLADDER
- Pear-shaped sac located in a
depression of the posterior
surface of the liver
LIVER & GALLBLADDER
LIVER
❑Hepatocytes
- Major functional cells of the
liver
- Makes up almost 80% of the
liver
- Secrete bile
LIVER & GALLBLADDER
LIVER
❑Bile canaliculi
- Small ducts between hepatocytes
- Collect bile and pass it onto the bile ductules, then to the bile
ducts
LIVER & GALLBLADDER
LIVER
❑Hepatic sinusoids
- Highly permeable blood
capillaries that receive
oxygenated blood from the
hepatic artery and nutrient-
rich deoxygenated blood
from the branches of the
hepatic portal vein
LIVER & GALLBLADDER
BILE
- Consists of water, bile salts, cholesterol, phospholipids, bile
pigments, and several ions.
❑Bilirubin
- Primary bile pigment
- Byproduct of RBC lysis.
- Broken down in the intestines -> stercobilin (gives the feces the
normal brown color)
❑Bile Salts
- Plays a role in emulsification (breakdown of large lipid globules
into smaller lipid globules.
LIVER & GALLBLADDER
FUNCTIONS
1. Bile production
2. Metabolism
✓Carbohydrates
✓Lipids
✓Protein
3. Processing of drugs and hormones
4. Excretion of bilirubin
5. Synthesis of bile salts
6. Storage
7. Phagocytosis
8. Activation of Vitamin D
HEPATOBILIARY TREE
SMALL INTESTINE
- Site where digestion and
absorption of nutrients are
mostly done
- Average length: 3m (living
person), 6.5m(cadaver)
- 3 regions: duodenum,
jejunum, ileum
SMALL INTESTINE
HISTOLOGY
-Four layers: mucosa,
submucosa, muscularis, and
serosa
❑Absorptive cells
❑Goblet Cells
❑Paneth Cells
❑Enteroendocrine cells
✓S cells
✓CCK cells
✓K cells
SMALL INTESTINE
MECHANICAL DIGESTION
❑Segmentations
- localized, mixing contractions that
occur in portions of the intestine due
to a large distention
- Circular contraction of muscle fibers
- Occurs rapidly in the duodenum
(12x/min)
❑Migrating motility complex
- Occurs once distention is lessened
- Begins in the lower portion of the
stomach
- Pushes the chyme forward along the
intestines (90-120min)
SMALL INTESTINE
CHEMICAL DIGESTION
❑Digestion of Carbohydrates
- Pancreatic amylase continues to break down starch, but cannot act on
“cellulose” (roughage)
- Brush-border enzymes digest some disaccharides into monossacharides
• Sucrase – breaks down sucrose -> glucose + fructose
• Lactase – lactose -> glucose + galactose
• Maltase – maltose or maltotriose -> 2 or 3 molecules of glucose
- MONOSACCHARIDES (only form of carbohydrate that the digestive tract is
able to absorb)
SMALL INTESTINE
CHEMICAL DIGESTION
❑Digestion of Protein
- Completed by two peptidases:
✓Aminopeptidase – splits of amino aid at the end of a peptide
✓Dipeptidase – splits dipeptides into single amino acids
- AMINO ACID (form of protein that the digestive tract can absorb)

❑Digestion of Lipids
- Large lipid globule undergo emulsification (done by bile salts)
- Pancreatic lipase breaks down triglycerides into fatty acids and
monoglycerides
SMALL INTESTINE
CHEMICAL DIGESTION
❑Digestion of Nucleic Acid
- Pancreatic juice contains ribonuclease and deoxyribonuclease that digest
RNA and DNA, respectively.
- Brush-border enzymes furtherly digest the product into pentoses,
phosphates, and nitrogenous bases
✓Nucleosidases
✓Phosphatases
SMALL INTESTINE
ABSORPTION
❑Monosaccharides
- All dietary carbohydrates except cellulose
- Absorbed by facilitated diffusion or active transport
❑Amino Acids, Dipeptides, and Tripeptides
- Mostly absorbed through active transport
❑Electrolytes
- Active transport
❑Vitamins
- Simple diffusion
❑Water
- Most are absorbed, some by the large intestines
- All water absorption done by osmosis
- Only 100mL excreted in feces
LARGE INTESTINE
- Terminal portion of the GI
tract
- Completes absorption,
production of vitamins,
formation of feces, and
expulsion of feces
- About 1.5m long
- 4 regions: cecum, colon,
rectum, and anal canal
- Contains absorptive and
goblet cells
- Haustra
LARGE INTESTINE
❑Cecum
- Hangs in the inferior wall of
the ileocecal valve/sphincter
- About 6cm
- Appendix
❑Colon
1. Ascending Colon
2. Transverse Colon
3. Descending Colon
4. Sigmoid Colon
LARGE INTESTINE
❑Rectum
- About 15cm in length
- Lies anterior to the sacrum and
coccyx
❑Anal Canal
- Terminal part of the large
intestine
- Contains anal columns (network
of arteries and veins)
- Houses the anus
LARGE INTESTINE
MECHANICAL DIGESTION
- Gastroileal reflex intensifies in the
ileum and forces any chyme into
the cecum after meals.
❑Haustral churning – once a
haustrum gets distended at a
certain point, it triggers it to
contract and squeeze its content
to the next haustrum
❑Mass peristalsis – a strong
peristaltic wave (usually 3-4 times
a day, during or immediately
after meals)
LARGE INTESTINE
CHEMICAL DIGESTION
- No enzymes secreted, but
bacteria act on the chyme
1. Fermentation of remaining
carbohydrates and release
hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and
methane gas (flatus)
2. Conversion of remaining
protein to amino acids, and
then to simpler substances.
3. Decomposition of bilirubin to
simpler pigments
DIGESTION
PHASES
1. Cephalic Phase
Activation of neural
Smell, sight, through Activation of:
centers (cerebral
or initial taste of
cortex, hypothalamus,
food
and brain stem)

Vagus Nerve Glossopharyngeal Nerve Facial Nerve

Stimulation of gastric Stimulation of salivary

glands to secrete glands to produce saliva
gastric juice
PHASES
2. Gastric Phase
- Begins once food reaches the stomach
- Regulated by neural and hormonal
mechanisms
❑Neural regulation
❑Hormonal regulation
- Gastrin stimulates:
✓Gastric glands secrete gastric juice
✓Contraction of the lower esophageal
sphincter
✓Motility of stomach
✓Relation of pyloric sphincter
PHASES
3. Intestinal Phase
- Begins once food enters the small intestines
- Regulated by neural and hormonal mechanisms:
❑Neural
Chyme distends the Enterogastric reflex Stretch receptors send
duodenum nerve impulses to the
medulla oblongata

Inhibition of gastric
Delay in gastric emptying motility Inhibition of
parasympathetic
stimulation, stimulation
Increased contraction of
of sympathetic
the pyloric sphincter
stimulation
PHASES
3. Intestinal Phase
- Begins once food enters the small intestines
- Regulated by neural and hormonal mechanisms:
❑Hormonal
- Digestion is mediated by:
✓Cholecystokinin – stimulation of pancreatic juice production, stimulated contraction
of gallbladder to release bile,
✓Secretin – stimulates flow of pancreatic juice to buffer acidic chyme, inhibits gastric
juice secretion, promotes normal growth and maintenance of pancreas, and
enhances the effects of the CCK.
SUMMARY
SUMMARY
SUMMARY
SUMMARY
SUMMARY