Digestive System & Major digestive glands

Digestive system
Digestive system is composed of oral cavity, digestive tract and glands.
1-Oral cavity: lips, cheeks, tongue, teeth, palate, pharynx.
2-The digestive tract: Extending from the oral cavity to the anus.
Pharynx, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines.
3-and its associated glands: Glands in the wall of the digestive tract.
The salivary glands. Major and accessory glands,
pancreas the liver and the gall bladder

TUBULAR DIGESTIVE TRACTUS:

It is composed by:
1) Esophagus.
2) Stomach.
3) Small and large intestine.
General structure:
The digestive tract is a hollow tube and presents common characteristics.
Its wall is made up of 4
layers:
1) The mucosa.
2) The sub mucosa.
3) The muscularis externa.
4) The serosa or the
adventitia.

1) The mucosa is composed of:

a) An epithelial lining
b) Lamin propia of loose connective tissue with many blood and lymphatic vessels,
also it may contain glands and lymphoid tissue.
c) The muscularis mucosa: consisting of an inner circular and an outer longitudinal
layer of smooth muscle cells.
2) The Submucosa is composed of
a) Loose connective tissue with many blood and lymph vessels.
b) A nerve plexus, called Meissner’s plexus.
c) Glands and lymphoid tissue may be present
3) The muscularis externa is composed of the following element:
a) Smooth muscle cell, divided into two layers; the internal circular layer and the
external longitudinal.
b) The myenteric nerve plexus or Auerbach's, present between the 2 muscle layers.
c) Blood and lymph vessels: also present in the connective tissue between the muscle
layers.
4) The serosa or adventitia.

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Digestive System & Major digestive glands

The serosa is a thin layer of loose connective tissue and adipose tissue, rich in blood
and lymphatic vessels, covered by a simple squamous epithelium (mesothelium).
The adventitia is formed by dense connective tissue continues with the connective
tissue of surrounding structures.
This part of the digestive system is a muscular tube whose function is to transport
food from the mouth to the stomach.
Esophagus:
It has the layers described in the general structure:
1) The mucosa is covered by nonkeratinezed stratified squamous epithelium which its
lamina propria presents vessels and few lymphatic nodules, the muscularis mucosa is
thick.
2) sub-mucosa presents tubulo-alveolar mucous glands, vessels and nerve plexus
within its connective tissue.
3) The muscularis externa close to pharynx has striated skeletal voluntary muscle. In
the mid-portion a mixture of striated and smooth muscle cells. At the distal third
portion the muscularis externa consists of only smooth muscle cells.
4) The outer layer is a serosa in the peritoneal cavity.
The rest of the esophagus is covered by a layer of loose connective tissue. The
adventitia is continuous to the connective tissue of the-
surrounding structures.
Stomach:
- The stomach continues the digestive process begun in
the oral cavity.
Have 4 regions: cardiac, fundus, body, and pylorus. The
fundus and body are identical in microscopic structure.
The stomach is a dilated segment of the tubular digestive
tract whose main functions are to add an acidic fluid.
The gastric mucosa consists of:
1) A surface simple columnar epithelium which all its cells
secrete mucus (neutral glycoprotein) forms a film that
protects these cells from the acid secreted by the stomach.
The epithelium invaginates into lamina propia forming
gastric pits. Emptying into gastric pits are tubular glands.
2)The lamina propia which main characteristic is the
presence of numerous gastric glands, emptying into gastric
pits, and scattered loose connective tissue between the
glands where smooth muscle and lymphoid cells are
present.
3)The muscularis mucosa that is a layer of smooth muscle
cells composed of inner circular layer, an outer
longitudinal layer and a more external layer of oblique
muscle fibers in some regions.
Gastric glands:
The distribution of epithelial cells is not uniform in the
gastric glands and there are the following types of cells:
1) Undifferentiated cells: found in the isthmus. Some of
them differentiate and move upward to replace the pit and
surface mucous cells. Other cells migrate deeper into the gland and differentiate into
the mucous neck cells, parietal cells, chief cells or enteroendocrine cells,
2) Mucous neck cells: They are located in the neck, secrete an acid mucous.

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Digestive System & Major digestive glands

3) Parietal cells: (or oxyntic - acid forming) are present at the isthmus, neck and in
the glands base, and of intensely acidophil cytoplasm.
Parietal cell secretes the hydrochloric acid and intrinsic factors
bind to vitamin B12. The presence of intrinsic factor is required for
vitamin B12 absorption by the cell of the small intestine. The lack
of intrinsic factor leads to vitamin B12 deficiency.
4) Chief (zymogenic) is present at the base of gastric glands. These
cells produce the enzymes pepsin, lipase, and rennin
5) Enteroendocrine or APUD cell (amine precursor uptake and
decarboxylation) which are concerned in the production and
release of hormones. Enteroendocrine cells secrete hormones all of
which pass via the blood stream to their target organs. The main
enteroendocrine cells type at the stomach is:
• gastrin that stimulates (secretion of HCL).
2) Submucosa: -
The Submucosa is composed of loose connective
tissue where blood and lymph vessels are present; it
is infiltrate by lymphoid cells.
3) Muscularis externa:
- It is composed of smooth muscle fibers arranged in
3 main directions:
• The inner layer is oblique.
• The middle layer is circular.
• The external layer longitudinal, all of them are
thick.
• At the pylorus the middle layer is greatly
thickened to form the Pyloric sphincter.
4) Serosa
The serosa is thin, covered by mesothelium

SMALL INTESTINE:
 The process of digestion is completed in the small
intestine and the products of digestion are absorbed.
 The small intestine consists of 3 segments:
duodenum, Jejunum and Ileum, approximately 6
meters long.
 The 3 segments have many characteristics in
common and will be discussed together.

Mucosa has the following specialization:

a) The plicae circulares its folds include entire
thickness of mucosa and portion of the submucosa.
Increase the surface area.
b) Intestinal villi. These structures are outgrowths of the mucosa (epithelium around core of
lamina propia) projecting into the lumen of the small intestine assuming a finger- shape form.
At the lamina propia connective tissue, there are arterioles, venules and lymphatic vessels.
Villi increase the surface area.
c) Intestinal glands or crypts of lieberkuhn

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Digestive System & Major digestive glands

d) Between the bases of the villi are the opening of simple tubular glands. They evagniation
into the lamina propia up to the muscularis mucosae. The epithelium of the villi is continuous
with that of the glands.
Lamina Propia
-The lamina propia of the Small intestine is composed of loose connective tissue with blood
and lymphatic vessels, nerve fibers and some smooth muscle cells.
-in addition there are lymphoid follicles more numerous at ileum where they may occupy the
thickness of the mucosa separated from the lumen only by the simple columnar epithelium as
long as there are no villi or crypts on the surface of large follicles called the Peyer's patches.
Muscularis mucosae
It follows the general structure pattern; an inner circular layer and an outer longitudinal layer
of smooth muscle cells.
2) The submucosa
-The submucosa may be infiltrated with lymphocytes in the region
of Peyer's patches.
-in the duodenum there are the Brunner's glands. These glands
secrete alkaline mucus. That neutralizes the acidity of the chime
coming from the stomach.
-The submucosal nerve plexus is present.
3- muscularis externa
Muscularis externa does not present any peculiarity in this organ.
have the general structure pattern, including the Auerbach's nerve
plexus.
4) Serosa: The serosa has the typical structure.