H2 option: DIGESTION

H.2.1
State that digestive juices are
secreted into the alimentary canal
by glands, including salivary
glands, gastric glands in the
stomach wall, the pancreas and
the wall of the small intestine
From the mouth to the anus the food passes through a
tubular structure

ALIMENTARY CANAL
 Digestion requires a number of
different enzymes
• Saliva: from salivary glands in the mouth
• Gastric juice: from gastric glands in the
stomach wall
• Pancreatic juice: from the pancreas, released
into duodenum
• Intestinal juice: from the wall of the small
intestine
Gastric juice
Pancreatic juice
Intestinal juice
• Specific enzymes from the pancreas and the duodenal
wall have specific roles in digesting macromolecules.

Fig. 41.17
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 H.2.2 Explain the structural features
of exocrine gland cells
• Exocrine glands have a duct to secrete products
• Examples: sweat glands; glands producing
digestive enzymes(e.g. Chief cells)
• The secretory cells of an exocrine gland produce
the product and secrete it into the acinus
(singular).
• The acini (plural) collect the product and pass it
into the duct that leads into a lumen or out of the
body.
Exocrine versus endocrine glands
• Exocrine glands • Endocrine glands
• Having duct • Ductless
• Secrete product into • Secrete product into
acini to the lumen or the blood stream
out of body • Examples: hormone-
• Examples: sweat producing cells
glands; digestive
enzyme producing
glands
 H.2.3
Compare the composition of
saliva, gastric juice and pancreatic
juice
Place pH Gland Secretion Enzyme Substrate Product
released
Mouth 7 Salivary glands Saliva Salivary Starch Maltose
amylase
Stomach 2 Gastric glands Gastric juice Pepsin Protein Polypeptides
(chief cells & HCl (pepsinogen)
parietal cells)
Small intestine 8 pancreas Pancreatic Pancreatic Starch Maltose
juice amylase

Trypsin Polypeptides
(trysinogen)

Lipase Glycerol + fatty

acids

Phospholipase Phosphate,
glycerol + fatty
acids

Bicarbonate Not an enzyme Neutralizes stomach acid

ions
 H.2.4
Outline the control of digestive
juice secretion by nerves and
hormones, using the examples of
secretion of gastric juice
 ANIMAL NUTRITION

The Mammalian Digestive System

1. The oral cavity, pharynx, and esophagus initiate food processing

2. The stomach stores food and performs preliminary digestion
3. The small intestine is the major organ of digestion and absorption
4. Hormones help regulate digestion
5. Reclaiming water is major function of the large intestine

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 Hormones help regulate digestion
• Hormones released by the wall of the stomach
and duodenum help ensure that digestive
secretions are present only when needed.
• When we see, smell, or taste food, impulses
from the brain initiate the secretion of gastric
juice.
• During and after a meal, gastrin will be released
by the stomach as to the presence of particular
polypeptides and amino acids as well as
physical stretching of the wall of the stomach.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
 Gastrin….

Is a hormone which travels from

the stomach via the blood to the
gastric glands and stimulates the
release of gastric juice
 H.2.5
Outline the role of membrane –
bound enzymes on the surface of
epithelial cells in the small
intestine in digestion
The process…

1. Some digestive enzymes, e.g.

maltase, are immobilized in the
plasma membrane of epithelial
cells on the surface of intestinal
villi.
2. They are positioned in the
membrane, so that the active site
is towards the lumen of the small
intestine.
3. When the substrate (maltose)
binds to the active site, it is
broken down into product
(glucose) .
4. The glucose is absorbed into the
epithelial cell and passed on to
the blood capillary.
 H.2.6
Outline the reasons for cellulose
not being digested in the
alimentary canal

Alimentary canal is …..

 Cellulose…
• A polysaccharide
• Does not dissolve in water (…problem!!!)
• Contains β-1,4 linkages (indigestible by
amylase) ….compare with starch
• Mammals do not possess cellulase to digest
cellulose
• Some bacteria do have cellulase and they can
live in a mutualistic relationship with
herbivores
 H.2.7
Explain why pepsin and trypsin are
initially synthesized as inactive
precursors and how they are
subsequently activated
 Why…. Inactive precursors
• Pepsin and trypsin are proteases
• If they were produced in their active form, they would
digest the cell which made them.
• So they are produced as inactive precursors
(pepsinogen and trypsinogen)
• The precursors are activated in the presence of HCl
and enterokinase
• Since HCl and enterokinase are produced separately
from the precursors,
• The precursor and the activator do not meet until they
are in the lumen of the digestive tract.
 H.2.8
Discuss the roles of gastric acid
and Helicobacter pylori in the
development of stomach ulcers
and stomach cancers
……..please refer to handout (page 358 of Minka Peeters Weem book, 3 rd ed)
• The stomach’s second line of defense against
self-digestion is a coating of mucus, secreted
by epithelial cells, that protects the stomach
lining.
• Still, the epithelium is continually eroded, and
the epithelium is completely replaced by
mitosis every three days.
• Gastric ulcers, lesions in the stomach lining, are
caused by the acid-tolerant bacterium
Helicobacter pylori.
• Ulcers are often treated with antibiotics.

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 Table 27.3, continued

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 H.2.9
Explain the problem of lipid
digestion in a hydrophilic medium
and the role of bile in overcoming
this
• Nearly all the fat in a meal reaches the small
intestine undigested.
• Normally fat molecules are insoluble in water, but bile
salts, secreted by the gallbladder into the duodenum,
coat tiny fats droplets and keep them from coalescing,
a process known as emulsification.
• The large surface area of these small droplets is
exposed to lipase, an enzyme that hydrolyzes fat
molecules into glycerol, fatty acids, and glycerides.
• Globule of fats drops droplets
….emulsification

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The end….