Gastro Flashcards
(215 cards)
THE ALIMENTARY TRACT: GI segments
- Mouth
- Pharynx
- Esophagus
- Stomach
- Small Intestine
- Large Intestine
- Sphincters between segments
THE ALIMENTARY TRACT: Accessory organs
- Liver
- Gall bladder
- Pancreas
Functions of the Alimentary Tract
Provides the body with a continual supply of water, electrolytes, vitamins, and nutrients, by:
- Movement of food
- Secretion of digestive juices and digestion of the food
- Absorption of water, nutrients and digestive products
- Circulation of blood to carry away the absorbed substances
- Local, nervous, and hormonal control
Each part of the Alimentary Tract is adapted to its specific functions:
- Simple passage of food (esophagus)
- Temporary storage of food (stomach)
- digestion and absorption (small intestine)
LAYERS
- Serosa
- Longitudinal Muscle Layer
- Circular Muscle Layer
- Submucosa
- Mucosa
The motor functions of the gut are performed by the different
layers of smooth muscle.
Gastrointestinal smooth muscle function as a syncytium
• Within each bundle, muscle fibers are electrically connected with one another through gap junctions → low-resistance movement of ions
• Electrical signals that initiate contractions → travel readily
from one fiber to the next within each bundle but more
rapidly along the length of the bundle than sideways.
• Each bundle is partly separated from the next by loose connective tissue, but the muscle bundles fuse with one another at many points
Gastrointestinal smooth muscle function as a syncytium 2
• Each muscle layer represents a branching latticework of
smooth muscle bundles.
• Each muscle layer functions as a syncytium → when an action potential is elicited anywhere within the muscle mass, it generally travels in all directions in the muscle.
Electrical Activity of GI Smooth Muscle
Electrical Activity of GI Smooth Muscle • Excited by almost continual slow, intrinsic electrical activity along the membranes of the muscle fibers • SLOW WAVES • SPIKE POTENTIALS • TONIC CONTRACTIONS - Exhibited by some GI Smooth Muscles - No slow waves - Last minutes to hours
- NOT true action potentials; slow, undulating changes in the RMP
- Slowest: Stomach- Fastest: Small intestines
- Sodium entry
- Pacemaker: Interstial cells of Cajal
SLOW WAVES
- True action potentials
- Threshold: -40mV
- Sodium and calcium entry
SPIKE POTENTIALS
- Exhibited by some GI Smooth Muscles
- Not associated with the basic electrical rhythm of slow waves but often lasts several minutes to hours
- often increases or decreases in intensity but continues
TONIC CONTRACTIONS
Factors that depolarized the membrane (less negative; more excitable)
- stretching of muscle
- stimulation of acetylcholine released from the parasympathetic nerves
- stimulation by several specific GI hormones
Factors that make the membrane hyperpolarized (more negative; less excitable)
- stimulation of norepinephrine/epinephrine
2. stimulation of the sympathetic nerve (secrete norepinephrine at their endings)
MECHANISMS FOR TONIC CONTRACTIONS:
• Continuous Repetitive Spike Potentials → the greater the
frequency, the greater the degree of contraction
• Hormones → continuous partial depolarization of the smooth
muscle membrane without causing action potentials
• Continuous entry of Calcium (unclear mechanism)
- Local, independent neural control of the GI tract → especially important in controlling gastrointestinal movements and secretion.
- Can function independently of these extrinsic nerves
- But stimulation by the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems can greatly enhance or inhibit gastrointestinal functions
ENTERIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
NEURAL CONTROL OF GI TRACT
• Intrinsic Control - Enteric nervous system
- Myenteric (Auerbach’s) plexus
- Submucosal (Meissner’s) plexus
• Extrinsic Control - Autonomic nervous system
- Parasympathetic – mainly stimulates ACh
- Sympathetic – mainly inhibits NE
- an outer plexus lying between Inner Circular and Outer
Longitudinal layers - GI Movements
- Mainly excitatory except for Pyloric Sphincter and Ileocecal Valve, where relaxation occurs
MYENTERIC (AUERBACH’S) PLEXUS
- Submucosa
- GI secretions, absorption, contraction of submucosal
muscle
SUBMUCOSAL (MEISSNER’S) PLEXUS
• Consists mostly of a linear chain of many interconnecting
neurons that extends the entire length of the GI tract.
• Concerned mainly with controlling muscle activity along the length of the gut, because:
- It extends all the way along the intestinal wall
- It lies between the longitudinal and circular layers of intestinal smooth muscle.
MYENTERIC PLEXUS
• Not entirely excitatory, some of its neurons are inhibitory
• Fiber endings secrete an inhibitory transmitter, possibly
VASOACTIVE INTESTINAL POLYPEPTIDE or some other inhibitory peptide.
• Inhibitory signals affect intestinal sphincters impeding
movement of food along the GI tract:
- Pyloric sphincter – emptying of the stomach into the duodenum
- Sphincter of the ileocecal valve – emptying from the SI
into the cecum
MYENTERIC PLEXUS
Principal effects of Myenteric Plexus when stimulated:
- ↑ tonic contraction, or “tone,” of the gut wall
- ↑ intensity of the rhythmical contractions
- ↑ rate of the rhythm of contraction
- ↑ velocity of conduction of excitatory waves along the gut wall → more rapid movement of peristaltic waves
- Mainly concerned with controlling function within the inner wall of each minute segment of the intestine.
- Control local intestinal secretion, local absorption, and local contraction of the submucosal muscle that causes various degrees of infolding of the gastrointestinal mucosa.
SUBMUCOSAL PLEXUS
ENTERIC NEUROTRANSMITTERS
- Acetylcholine – most often excitatory
* Norepinephrine/Epinephrine – most often inhibitory
- Parasympathetic stimulation increases activity of the ENS
* Sympathetic stimulation usually inhibits GIT activity
AUTONOMIC CONTROL OF GIT