ASIA PACIFIC COLLEGE OF ADVANCED STUDIES

A.H. Banzon St, Ibayo, Balanga City

EP (MC I) - Anatomy and Physiology

BSN II
Digestive System

Name: Santos, Lore Anne Mhae T. Date: ______________________________

Instructor: Giovanni D. David, EdD, RN Score: _____________________________

Weekly task no. 2. Answer the following questions comprehensively.

1. List the organs of the gastrointestinal tract and their functions.

Mouth. Food starts to move through your GI tract when you eat. When you swallow,
your tongue pushes the food into your throat. A small flap of tissue, called the epiglottis,
folds over your windpipe to prevent choking and the food passes into your esophagus.

Esophagus. Once you begin swallowing, the process becomes automatic. Your brain
signals the muscles of the esophagus and peristalsis begins.

Stomach. After food enters your stomach, the stomach muscles mix the food and liquid
with digestive juices. The stomach slowly empties its contents, called chyme, into your
small intestine.

Small intestine. The muscles of the small intestine mix food with digestive juices from
the pancreas, liver, and intestine, and push the mixture forward for further digestion. The
walls of the small intestine absorb water and the digested nutrients into your bloodstream.
As peristalsis continues, the waste products of the digestive process move into the large
intestine.

Large intestine. Waste products from the digestive process include undigested parts of
food, fluid, and older cells from the lining of your GI tract. The large intestine absorbs
water and changes the waste from liquid into stool. Peristalsis helps move the stool into
your rectum.

Rectum. The lower end of your large intestine, the rectum, stores stool until it pushes
stool out of your anus during a bowel movement

Liver. Your liver makes a digestive juice called bile that helps digest fats and some
vitamins. Bile ducts carry bile from your liver to your gallbladder for storage, or to the
small intestine for use.
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A.H. Banzon St, Ibayo, Balanga City

Pancreas. Your pancreas makes a digestive juice that has enzymes that break down
carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. The pancreas delivers the digestive juice to the small
intestine through small tubes called ducts.

Gallbladder. Your gallbladder stores bile between meals. When you eat, your
gallbladder squeezes bile through the bile ducts into your small intestine.

2. Identify the accessory organs of the digestive system and the function of their secretions.

- Salivary Glands- The salivary glands in mammals are exocrine glands that

produce saliva through a system of ducts. Humans have three paired major salivary
glands (parotid, submandibular, and sublingual) as well as hundreds of minor salivary
glands. Salivary glands can be classified as serous, mucous or seromucous (mixed).
- Liver- The liver is located primarily in the right hypochondriac and epigastric regions
of the abdomen, just beneath the diaphragm. It is the largest gland in the body. On the
surface, the liver is divided into two major lobes and two smaller lobes. The
functional units of the liver are lobules with sinusoids that carry blood from the
periphery to the central vein of the lobule. The liver receives blood from two sources.
Freshly oxygenated blood is brought to the liver by the common hepatic artery, a
branch of the celiac trunk from the abdominal aorta. Blood that is rich in nutrients
from the digestive tract is carried to the liver by the hepatic portal vein.
- Gallbladder- The gallbladder is a pear-shaped sac that is attached to
the visceral surface of the liver by the cystic duct. The principal function of the
gallbladder is to serve as a storage reservoir for bile. Bile is a yellowish-green fluid
produced by liver cells. The main components of bile are water, bile salts, bile
pigments, and cholesterol. Bile salts act as emulsifying agents in
the digestion and absorption of fats. Cholesterol and bile pigments from the
breakdown of hemoglobin are excreted from the body in the bile.

- Pancreas- The pancreas has both endocrine and exocrine functions. The endocrine

portion consists of the scattered islets of Langerhans, which secrete the
hormones insulin and glucagon into the blood. The exocrine portion is the major part
of the gland. It consists of pancreatic acinar cells that secrete digestive enzymes into
tiny ducts interwoven between the cells. Pancreatic enzymes include anylase, trypsin,
peptidase, and lipase. Pancreatic secretions are controlled by the
hormones secretin and cholecystokinin.

3. Describe the tissue layers that form the walls of the digestive tract.
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A.H. Banzon St, Ibayo, Balanga City

- Mucosa- The mucosa, or mucous membrane layer, is the innermost tunic of the wall.

It lines the lumen of the digestive tract. The mucosa consists of epithelium, an
underlying loose connective tissue layer called lamina propria, and a thin layer
of smooth muscle called the muscularis mucosa. In certain regions, the mucosa
develops folds that increase the surface area. Certain cells in the mucosa
secrete mucus, digestive enzymes, and hormones. Ducts from other glands pass
through the mucosa to the lumen. In the mouth and anus, where thickness for
protection against abrasion is needed, the epithelium is stratified squamous tissue.
The stomach and intestines have a thin simple columnar epithelial layer for secretion
and absorption.
- Submucosa- The submucosa is a thick layer of loose connective tissue that surrounds
the mucosa. This layer also contains blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and nerves.
Glands may be embedded in this layer.
- Muscular layer- The muscular layer (muscular coat, muscular fibers, muscularis
propria, muscularis externa) is a region of muscle in many organs in the vertebrate
body, adjacent to the submucosa. It is responsible for gut movement such as
peristalsis. The Latin, tunica muscularis, may also be used.
- Serous layer or serosa- In anatomy, serous membrane (or serosa) is a smooth tissue
membrane consisting of two layers of mesothelium, which secrete serous fluid. The
inner layer that covers organs (viscera) in body cavities is called the visceral
membrane.

4. Explain the processes associated with digestion.

- The first of these processes, ingestion, refers to the entry of food into the alimentary
canal through the mouth. There, the food is chewed and mixed with saliva, which
contains enzymes that begin breaking down the carbohydrates in the food plus some
lipid digestion via lingual lipase. Chewing increases the surface area of the food and
allows an appropriately sized bolus to be produced.
- Food leaves the mouth when the tongue and pharyngeal muscles propel it into the
esophagus. This act of swallowing, the last voluntary act until defecation, is an
example of propulsion, which refers to the movement of food through the digestive
tract. It includes both the voluntary process of swallowing and the involuntary
process of peristalsis. Peristalsis consists of sequential, alternating waves of
contraction and relaxation of alimentary wall smooth muscles, which act to propel
food along. These waves also play a role in mixing food with digestive juices.
Peristalsis is so powerful that foods and liquids you swallow enter your stomach even
if you are standing on your head. Digestion includes both mechanical and chemical
processes. Mechanical digestion is a purely physical process that does not change the
chemical nature of the food. Instead, it makes the food smaller to increase both
surface area and mobility. It includes mastication, or chewing, as well as tongue
movements that help break food into smaller bits and mix food with saliva. Although
there may be a tendency to think that mechanical digestion is limited to the first steps
of the digestive process, it occurs after the food leaves the mouth, as well. The
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A.H. Banzon St, Ibayo, Balanga City

mechanical churning of food in the stomach serves to further break it apart and
expose more of its surface area to digestive juices, creating an acidic “soup”
called chyme. Segmentation, which occurs mainly in the small intestine, consists of
localized contractions of circular muscle of the muscularis layer of the alimentary
canal. These contractions isolate small sections of the intestine, moving their contents
back and forth while continuously subdividing, breaking up, and mixing the contents.
By moving food back and forth in the intestinal lumen, segmentation mixes food with
digestive juices and facilitates absorption.
- In chemical digestion, starting in the mouth, digestive secretions break down complex
food molecules into their chemical building blocks (for example, proteins into
separate amino acids). These secretions vary in composition, but typically contain
water, various enzymes, acids, and salts. The process is completed in the small
intestine. Food that has been broken down is of no value to the body unless it enters
the bloodstream and its nutrients are put to work. This occurs through the process
of absorption, which takes place primarily within the small intestine. There, most
nutrients are absorbed from the lumen of the alimentary canal into the bloodstream
through the epithelial cells that make up the mucosa. Lipids are absorbed into lacteals
and are transported via the lymphatic vessels to the bloodstream (the subclavian veins
near the heart). The details of these processes will be discussed later.
- In defecation, the final step in digestion, undigested materials are removed from the
body as feces.
5. Compare the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids.
- metabolism of carbohydrates- is a fundamental biochemical process that ensures a
constant supply of energy to living cells. The most important carbohydrate is glucose,
which can be broken down via glycolysis, enter into the Kreb's cycle and oxidative
phosphorylation to generate ATP.
- metabolism of proteins- denotes the various biochemical processes responsible for
the synthesis of proteins and amino acids (anabolism), and the breakdown
of proteins by catabolism. In humans, non-essential amino acids are synthesized from
intermediates in major metabolic pathways such as the Citric Acid Cycle
- metabolism of lipids- entails the oxidation of fatty acids to either generate energy or
synthesize new lipids from smaller constituent molecules. Lipid metabolism is
associated with carbohydrate metabolism, as products of glucose (such as acetyl
CoA) can be converted into lipids.

6. Explain how carbohydrates are made by gluconeogenesis.

- The body breaks down or converts most carbohydrates into the
sugar glucose. Glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream, and with the help of a
hormone called insulin it travels into the cells of the body where it can be used for
energy