Kin 132 Digestive system Flashcards
(59 cards)
What are the goals of the digestive system?
- Breakdown food to absorbable size
- Elimination of remaining material that wasn’t absorbed
Explain what the macromolecules ingested are turned into
Carbohydrates:
- Macromolecule: Carbohydrates
- Intermediate: Disacharides
- Final: monosaccharides
Proteins:
- Macromolecole: Polly peptide
- Intermediate: Peptide
- Final: Amino acids
Tryglyerides:
- Macromolecule: Triglycerides
- Final: Monoglyceride
Explain the phases of the digestive system
- Ingestion - Enter to GI tract
- Motility - Movement of food for mixing or propulsion
- Secretion - Addition of water, enzymes, and environmental factors to the GI tract. Mixed in during mixing
- Digestion - Breaking down food either physically or chemically
- Absorption - Substances enter body
6 Excretion - Un absorbed substances are secreted at anus
What is a environmental factor?
They create the optimal conditions for enzymes to operate in. usually causing acidity or alkylinity
What process of digestion only happens at a specific spot?
Excretion only happens at the anus
Explain the anatomical components of the digestive system
- Gastrointestinal tract: Muscular tube from mouth to anus
- Accessory structures: Contributes to GI tract, eg. Teeth, pancreas
Explain the receptors in the GI tract that detect the injestion of food, and what effect they have
Receptors:
1. Mechanoreceptors - stretch of GI tract
2. Osmoreceptors - Osmotic pressure
3. Chemoreceptors - acidity and specific nutrient concentrations
These send a signal to…
Smooth muscle:
1. Circular muscle layers: wrap around GI tract
2. Longitudinal muscle layers: run along GI tract
Epithelial cells:
- Enteroendorcrine cells - hormone secretion
- Exocrine cells - Enzyme and environmental factors secretion
- Muscous cells - mucous secretion
Explain the neural regulation of the GI tract
The ENS is made of two main nerve plexuses, that Arte used for communication between: plexuses, receptors to plexuses and CNS to plexuses:
- Myenteric plexus
- most connections with the circular and longitudinal muscles - Submucosal plexus
- Most connections to the epithelial cells
What is the ENS
- Enteric Nervous system
- Works as a second brain for the enteric system
- Functions separately from the CNS
What are the different pathways the ENS can use
Short reflexes:
- Stays inside of the GI tract
- Stimulus causes receptor to send a signal to the nerve plexuses which sends a efferent signal to cause a effect
Long reflexes:
- Travels outside of the GI tract
- Stimulus causes receptor to send a afferent signal to both the nerve plexus and the CNS
- CNS sends a signal back to the nerve plexus
- Nerve plexus send efferent signal to cause a effect
Explain the hormonal regulation of the GI tract
- Enteroendocrine cells have one side facing the lumen of GI tract and one side facing bloodstream
- When stimulus arrives, enteroendocrine cell releases hormone into the bloodstream which circulate to their target cells
- Response from these hormones can be excitatory of inhibitory
- Key hormones released:
1. Gastrin
2. Secretin
3. Cholecystokinin (CCK)
4. Somatostatin
Explain the salivation regulation of the GI tract
- Salivary center is in the medulla oblongata
- Salivary center sends parasympathetic signal to the submucosal plexus = increased salivary gland activation = increase3d salivation
- Always a base level of stimulus being sent to the salivary center, but stimulus such as food, smell, thought of food can increase this stimulation
Explain the cephalic regulation of the GI tract
- Cephalic stimuli sends signal to the salivary center
- Increase cephalic stimulus = increased parasympathetic signal to submucosal plexus = increased salivation = increased water and enzymes
- Cephalic stimuli doesn’t need to involve actually eating, eg, sight smell
- Also sends a parasympathetic signal to the stomach to increase acid secretion and stomach motility to prepare for food
- Cephalic stimuli such as stress or dehydration will cause the salivary center to send a sympathetic signal to the submucosal plexus = decreased salivary gland activity = decreased saliva volume
Explain the composition of saliva
- Saliva enters at the mouth which contains:
- water: moistened food, helps with taste, and cleans mouth
- Muscus: lubricates food, pharynx to help with swallowing
- Bicarbonate: Helps neutralize food acids
- Lysomes: kills bacteria
- Enzymes: start of chemical digestion. contains salivary amylase and lingual lipase
Explain the function of Salivary amylase and lingual lipase contained in saliva
Salivary amylase:
- Breaks polysaccharides down into disaccharides
- Opperates best in slight acidity (from the mouth down to fungus of stomach)
Lingual lipade:
- Breaks triglycerides down into monoglycerides
- Opperates best in highly acidic environments (In body and antrum of stomach)
- While this enzyme is added in the mouth it isn’t most effective until the bottom of the stomach
- Both work in all acidity levels but work better in their optimal conditions
Explain chewing (Mastication)
Goals:
- Physical digestion - increases surface area
- Motility - mixing food with enzymes added
- Forming a bolus (semi solid mass for swallowing)
- Absorption in mouth is limited, except for some vitamins and minerals and drugs and alcohol
Explain swallowing (Deglutition)
- The more liquid the bolus is the faster its swallowed
Stage 1: Voluntary stage
- Voluntary
- Tongue pushes bolus up and back moving it from oral cavity to pharynx
Stage 2: Pharyngeal stage
- Involuntary
- Oral pharynx receptors send signal to swallowing centre that bolus is present
- Swallowing center sends signal to:
1. uvula: blocks nasal pharynx
2. Epiglottis: blocks laryngeal pharynx
3. Tounge: blocks oral pharynx - Inhibits respiratory muscles, stopping breathing temporarily
- Relaxes upper esophageal sphincter, helping bolus enter esophagus
- Once bolus enters esophohus = no stimulus to swallowing center, structures move back to normal position and breathing resumes and upper esophageal sphincter contracts blocking back flow into pharynx
3rd stage: esophageal stage
- In esophagus
- Involuntary
- Peristalsis occurs: circular muscles contract above bolus and longitudinal muscles contract to push bolus along
- Lower esophageal sphincter relaxes to let bolus into stomach
Explain regurgitation
- Once bolus is in stomach, lower esophageal sphincter contracts blocking back flow into esophagus
- If lower esophageal sphincter isn’t contracted enough, when stomach motility occurs acid from stomach may regurgitate back into the esophagus
- Not enough contraction can be caused bye alcohol and smoking
Explain the process that occurs in the stomach
- Stomach expands in order to store food before entering the intestines as injection is faster than digestion and absorption
- Mixing waves from propulsion and retropulsion mix the food in the stomach turning it into chyme. Pace determined by pacemaker cell in stomach
- Stronger motility in the antrum and body, weaker in the fundis
- Every time the propulsion causes a wave to go to the duodenum, a small bit of chyme will move into the duodenum. More mixing waves = more chyme into duodenum
Explain the gastric phase
- Food arrives in the stomach, detected by increased distention, lowered acidity, and increase in amino acids and peptides
Neural response:
- Increase HCl secretion
- Increased gastric motility = increased gastric emptying
Hormonal response:
- Increased secretion of gastrin causing:
1. increased HCl secretion
2. increased gastric motility, pyloric sphincter relaxes = increased gastric emptying
3. increased contraction of lower esophageal sphincter = prevent regurgitation
Explain the gastric gland
The gastric gland is a canal in the stomach containing key cells
- Parietal cells - secrete HCl
- Chief cells - secretes pepsinogen into stomach which gets added to chyme
- Entrochromaffin - like - secretes histamine
- Muscous cells - Secrete mucous and bicarbonate into stomach lumen protecting it from HCl
- Enteroendocrine cells
- G cells: secrete gastrin into bloodstream
- D cells - secrete somatostatin into bloodstream
Explain what pepsinogen does
- Enzyme Released by chief cells
- In its inactive form, converted by HCL into pepsin once out in lumen
- Pepsin breaks polypeptides into peptide fragments
- Most active in highly acidic environments
Explain the function of adding HCl
- Affects the enzymes added in the mouth: decrease in activity of salivary amylase, increase for lingual lipase
- Partially open up polypeptides folded structure so its easier to break its bonds
- Kills pathogens
Explain how parietal cells create HCl
- Parietal cells form H+ and bicarbonate from water and carbon dioxide
- H+ crosser apical membrane into stomach lumen by primary active transport
- Bicarbonate crosses basolateral membrane, pushing Cl- into the cell
- Cl- crosser apical membrane into stomach lumen via facilitated diffusion and brings with H+ to form HCl