DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

The gastrointestinal tract

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 Nutrition
Animal nutrition: food being taken in, taken apart, and taken up.
Animals have diverse diets:
1. Herbivores, such as cattle, dine mainly on plants or algae.
2. Carnivores, such as spiders, mostly eat other animals.
3. Omnivores, such as rat, do regularly consume animals as well as plants or algae. We humans are
typically omnivores.

Most animals are opportunistic feeders, eating foods outside their standard diet when their usual
foods aren’t available.

To survive and reproduce, animals must balance their consumption, storage, and use of food.

An adequate diet must satisfy three nutritional needs:

1. Chemical energy for cellular processes: This energy is used to produce ATP, which
powers processes ranging from DNA replication and cell division to vision and flight. To
meet the need for ATP, animals ingest and digest nutrients, including carbohydrates,
proteins, and lipids, for use in cellular respiration and energy storage.
2. Organic building blocks for macromolecules: An animal requires raw materials for
biosynthesis. To build the complex molecules it needs to grow, maintain itself, and
reproduce, an animal must obtain two types of organic molecules from its food: a source
of organic carbon (such as sugar) and a source of organic nitrogen (such as protein).
Nonessential
From these materials, animal cells can construct a great variety of organic molecules.
3. Essential nutrients: Substances that an animal requires but cannot assemble from
simple organic molecules. Essential nutrients in the diet include essential amino acids,
essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Essential nutrients have key functions in
essential
cells, including serving as substrates of enzymes, as coenzymes, and as cofactors in
biosynthetic reactions. In general, an animal can obtain all essential amino acids and
fatty acids, as well as vitamins and minerals, by feeding on plants or other animals.

Essential Amino Acids:

• All organisms require a standard set of 20 amino acids to make a complete set of proteins.
• Plants and microorganisms normally can produce all 20.
• Most animals have the enzymes to synthesize about half of these amino acids, as long as
their diet includes sulfur and organic nitrogen.
• The remaining amino acids must be obtained from the animal’s food in prefabricated form
and are therefore called essential amino acids.

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• Many animals, including adult humans, require eight amino acids in their diet: isoleucine,
leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. (Human
infants also need a ninth, histidine.)
• The proteins in animal products such as meat, eggs, and cheese are “complete,” which
means that they provide all the essential amino acids in their proper proportions. In
contrast, most plant proteins are “incomplete,” being deficient in one or more essential
amino acids.
• However, vegetarians can easily obtain all of the essential amino acids by eating a varied
diet of plant proteins.

Essential Fatty Acids:

• Animals require fatty acids to synthesize a variety of cellular components, including
membrane phospholipids, signaling molecules, and storage fats.
• Although animals can synthesize many fatty acids, they lack the enzymes to form the double
bonds found in certain required fatty acids. Instead, these molecules must be obtained from
the diet and are considered essential fatty acids. In mammals, they include linoleic acid.

Vitamins:
• Vitamins are organic molecules that are required in the diet in very small amounts (0.01–
100 mg per day, depending on the vitamin).
• The 13 vitamins required by humans vary in both chemical properties and function
• Vitamin B2, for example, is a water-soluble vitamin that is converted in the body to FAD, a
coenzyme used in many metabolic processes, including cellular respiration.
• Vitamin C, which is required for the production of connective tissue, is also water-soluble.

Fat-soluble vitamins include: KEDA

1. Vitamin A, which is incorporated into visual pigments of the eye.
2. Vitamin D, which aids in calcium absorption and bone formation.
3. Vitamin E, which is a natural antioxidant.
4. Vitamin K, which aids in blood clotting.
• Our dietary requirement for vitamin D, unlike other vitamins, turns out to be variable. Why? When
our skin is exposed to sunlight, our bodies synthesize vitamin D, reducing our dietary need.
• For people with imbalanced diets, taking supplements that provide vitamins at recommended daily
levels is reasonable.
• Moderate overdoses of water-soluble vitamins are probably harmless because excesses are excreted
in urine. However, excesses of fat-soluble vitamins are deposited in body fat and liver, so
overconsumption may cause them to accumulate to toxic levels. ***

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 4D

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Minerals:
Dietary minerals are inorganic nutrients, such as iron and sulfur, that are usually required in
small amounts.

Minerals have diverse functions in animal physiology:

1. Some are assembled into the structure of proteins; iron, for example, iron is incorporated
into the oxygen carrier hemoglobin as well as some enzymes.
2. Others, such as sodium, potassium, and chloride, are important in the functioning of nerves
and muscles and in maintaining osmotic balance between cells and the surrounding body
fluid.
3. The mineral iodine is incorporated into thyroid hormone, which regulates metabolic rate.
4. Vertebrates also require relatively large quantities of calcium and phosphorus for building
and maintaining bone.
Ingesting too much of some minerals can upset homeostatic balance and cause health
problems. For example, excess sodium can contribute to high blood pressure

Dietary Deficiencies:
• Malnutrition: A diet that lacks one or more essential nutrients or consistently supplies
less chemical energy than the body requires results in malnutrition, a failure to obtain
adequate nutrition. Malnutrition affects one out of four children.
• Deficiencies in Essential Nutrients Insufficient intake of essential nutrients can cause
deformities, disease, and even death. For example, deer or other her
• protein deficiency, the most common type of malnutrition among humans.

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• Undernourishment: As mentioned earlier, malnutrition can also be caused by a diet that
fails to provide enough chemical energy. In this situation, the body first uses
up stored
carbohydrates and fat. It then begins breaking down its own
proteins for fuel***: Muscles shrink, and the brain may become protein-deficient. If
energy intake remains less than energy expenditures, the animal will eventually die.
• Assessing Nutritional Needs: Epidemiology.
• Many insights into human nutrition have come from epidemiology, the study of human
health and disease at the population level.

Food processing
Food processing involves four stages: ingestion, digestion, absorption, and elimination.
secretion
Ingestion:
• Food processing begins with ingestion, the act of eating or feeding.
• The feeding mechanisms of most animal species can be grouped into four basic types

[Link] Feeding: Many aquatic animals are filter feeders, which

strain small organisms or food particles from the surrounding medium.
The humpback whale, shown here, is one example. Attached to the
whale’s upper jaw are comb-like plates called baleen, which remove
small invertebrates and fish from enormous volumes of water and
sometimes mud. Filter feeding in water is a type of suspension feeding,
which also includes removing suspended food particles from the
surrounding medium by capture or trapping mechanisms.

[Link] Feeding: Most animals, including humans, are bulk

feeders, which eat relatively large pieces of food.

[Link] Feeding: Substrate feeders are animals that live in or

on their food source.

[Link] Feeding: Fluid feeders suck nutrient-rich fluid from a living

host.

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Digestion:
During digestion, the second stage of food processing, food is broken down into molecules small
enough for the body to absorb.

Two types of digestion are typically required:

1. Mechanical digestion, such as chewing or grinding, breaks food into smaller pieces,
increasing surface area.
2. Chemical digestion, which cleaves large molecules into smaller components.
Chemical digestion is necessary because animals cannot directly use the proteins,
carbohydrates, nucleic acids, fats, and phospholipids in food. These molecules are too
large to pass through cell membranes and also are not all identical to those the animal
needs for its particular tissues and functions.
A cell makes a macromolecule or fat by linking together smaller components; it does so by
removing a molecule of water for each new covalent bond formed. Chemical digestion by
enzymes reverses this process by breaking bonds through the addition of water.

This splitting process is catalyzed by digestive enzymes and is called enzymatic hydrolysis
which includes:
1. Polysaccharides and disaccharides are split into simple sugars.
2. Proteins are broken down into small peptides and amino acids.
3. Nucleic acids are cleaved into nucleotides and their components.
Enzymatic hydrolysis also releases fatty acids and other components from fats and
phospholipids.

Absorption:
In the third stage, absorption, the animal’s cells take up (absorb) small molecules such as amino
acids and simple sugars.

Elimination:
The process in which undigested material passes out of the digestive system, completes the
process.

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 Digestive Compartments
The evolutionary adaptation that allows animals to avoid self-digestion is the processing of food
within specialized intracellular or extracellular compartments.

Intracellular Digestion:
• Food vacuoles—cellular organelles in which hydrolytic enzymes break down food—are
the simplest digestive compartments.
• The hydrolysis of food inside vacuoles, called intracellular digestion, begins after a cell
engulfs solid food by phagocytosis or liquid food by pinocytosis.
• Newly formed food vacuoles fuse with lysosomes, organelles containing hydrolytic
enzymes. This fusion of organelles brings food in contact with these enzymes, allowing
digestion to occur safely within a compartment enclosed by a protective membrane.

Extracellular Digestion:
In most animal species, hydrolysis occurs largely by extracellular digestion, the breakdown of
food in compartments that are continuous or opened with the outside of the animal’s body.
Having one or more extracellular compartments for digestion enables an animal to devour
much larger pieces of food than can be ingested by phagocytosis.

This includes many forms:

1. Simple body plans typically have a digestive compartment
with a single opening. This pouch, called a gastrovascular
cavity, functions in digestion as well as in the distribution
of nutrients throughout the body.
2. Rather than a gastrovascular cavity, animals with complex
body plans have a digestive tube with two openings, a
mouth and an anus. Such a tube is called a complete
digestive tract or, more commonly, an alimentary canal.

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 The mammalian digestive system
Gastrointestinal tract

A number of accessory glands support food processing by secreting digestive

juices through ducts into the alimentary canal:
➢ There are three pairs of salivary glands, as well as three individual glands: the pancreas,
the liver, and the gallbladder.

Parts of the digestive system:

[Link] Oral Cavity, Pharynx, and Esophagus:
As soon as a bite of food enters your mouth, or oral cavity, food processing begins.
1. Teeth: Teeth with specialized shapes cut, mash, and grind, breaking the food into smaller
pieces. This mechanical breakdown not only increases the surface area available for
chemical breakdown but also facilitates swallowing.

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2. Saliva and salivary glands: Meanwhile, the anticipation or arrival of food in the oral cavity
triggers the release of saliva by the salivary glands. Saliva is a complex mixture of materials
with a number of vital functions. One major component is mucus, a viscous mixture of
water, salts, cells, and slippery glycoproteins (carbohydrate-protein complexes). Mucus
lubricates food for easier swallowing, protects the gums against abrasion, and facilitates
taste and smell. Saliva also contains buffers (which help prevent tooth decay by neutralizing
acid) and antimicrobial agents which protect against bacteria that enter the mouth with
food.
• Three pairs of salivary glands produce a watery fluid called saliva: The parotid
gland lies near the back of the jaw, and the smaller sublingual and
submandibular glands are located just below the lower jaw and below the
tongue, respectively. All three glands connect to the oral cavity via ducts.
• Scientists have long been puzzled by the fact that saliva contains a large amount
of the enzyme amylase, which breaks down starch (a glucose polymer from plants) and
glycogen (a glucose polymer from animals).
• Most chemical digestion occurs not in the mouth but in the small intestine, where amylase is
also present. Why, then, does saliva contain so much amylase? A current hypothesis is that
amylase in saliva releases food particles that are stuck to the teeth, thereby reducing the
nutrients available to microorganisms living in the mouth.
3. The tongue: Aids digestive processes by evaluating ingested
material, distinguishing which foods should be processed further
and then enabling their passage. After food is deemed acceptable
and chewing begins, tongue movements manipulate the mixture of
saliva and food, helping shape it into a ball called a bolus.
• During swallowing, the tongue provides further assistance, pushing the bolus to the back of the oral
cavity and into the pharynx.
➢ Each bolus of food is received by the pharynx, or throat region, which leads to two passageways: the
esophagus and the trachea.
• The esophagus: is a muscular tube that connects to the stomach.
• The trachea (windpipe): leads to the lungs.
• Swallowing must therefore be carefully choreographed to keep food and liquids from entering the
trachea and causing choking, a blockage of the trachea. The resulting lack of airflow into the
lungs can be fatal if the material is not dislodged by vigorous coughing.
• Within the esophagus, food is pushed along by peristalsis, alternating waves of smooth muscle
contraction and relaxation. Upon reaching the end of the esophagus, the bolus encounters a
sphincter, a ringlike valve of muscle.
• Acting like a drawstring, the sphincter regulates
passage of the ingested food into the next
compartment, the stomach.

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Digestion in the Stomach
• The stomach, which is located just below the diaphragm, plays two major roles in
digestion:
• The first is storage. With accordion-like folds and a very elastic wall, the stomach can
stretch to accommodate about 2 L of food and fluid.
• The second major function is to process food into a liquid suspension. The stomach
secretes a digestive fluid called gastric juice and mixes it with the food through a
churning action. This mixture of ingested food and gastric juice is called chyme.

Chemical Digestion in the Stomach:

Two components of gastric juice help liquefy food in the stomach:
1. First, hydrochloric acid (HCl) disrupts the extracellular matrix that binds cells together in
meat and plant material. The concentration of HCl is so high that the pH of gastric juice
is about 2, acidic enough to dissolve iron nails (and to kill most bacteria). This low pH
denatures (unfolds) proteins in food, increasing exposure of their peptide bonds. The
exposed bonds are then attacked by the second component of gastric juice.
2. Gastric juice —a protease, or protein-digesting enzyme, called pepsin. Unlike most
enzymes, pepsin is adapted to work best in a very acidic environment. By breaking
peptide bonds, it cleaves proteins into smaller polypeptides and further exposes the
contents of ingested tissues.

Two types of cells in the gastric glands of the stomach produce the components
of gastric juice:
1. Parietal cells use an ATP-driven pump to expel hydrogen ions
into the lumen. At the same time, chloride ions diffuse into the
lumen through specific membrane channels of the parietal cells. It
is therefore only within the lumen that hydrogen and chloride
ions combine to form HCl.
2. Chief cells release pepsin into the lumen in an inactive form
called pepsinogen. HCl converts pepsinogen to active pepsin by
clipping off a small portion of the molecule and exposing its active
site.

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• Through these processes, both HCl and pepsin form in the lumen (cavity) of the stomach,
not within the cells of the gastric glands. As a result, the parietal and chief cells produce
gastric juice but are not digested from within by its components.
• After hydrochloric acid converts a small amount of pepsinogen to pepsin, pepsin itself helps
activate the remaining pepsinogen. Pepsin, like HCl, can clip pepsinogen to expose the
enzyme’s active site. This generates more pepsin, which activates more pepsinogen. This
series of events is an example of positive feedback.
• Why don’t HCl and pepsin eat through the lining of the stomach? For one thing,
mucus secreted by cells in gastric glands protects against self-digestion. In addition, cell
division adds a new epithelial layer every three days, replacing cells before the lining is fully
eroded by digestive juices.
• Under certain circumstances, however, damaged areas of the stomach lining called gastric
ulcers can appear. It had been thought that they were caused by psychological stress and
resulting excess acid secretion.
• Warren discovered that infection by the acid-tolerant bacterium Helicobacter pylori
causes ulcers. They also demonstrated that an antibiotic could cure most gastric ulcers.

Stomach Dynamics
• The breakdown of food by gastric juices is enhanced by muscular activity of the stomach.
• The coordinated series of muscle contractions and relaxations that we call “churning” mixes
the stomach contents about every 20 seconds.
• Churning facilitates chemical digestion by bringing all of the food into contact with the
gastric juices secreted by the lining of the stomach.
• As a result, what began as a recently swallowed meal becomes the acidic, nutrient-rich
broth known as chyme.
• Contractions of stomach muscles also help move material through the alimentary canal. In
particular, peristaltic contractions typically move the contents of the stomach into the
small intestine within 2–6 hours after a meal.
• The sphincter located where the stomach opens to the small intestine helps regulate
passage into the small intestine, allowing only one squirt of chyme to enter at a time.
• Occasionally, the sphincter at the top of the stomach allows a movement, or flux, of chyme
from the stomach back into the lower end of the esophagus. The painful irritation of the
esophagus that results from this process of acid reflux is commonly called “heartburn.”

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Digestion in the Small Intestine:
Although some chemical digestion begins in the oral cavity and stomach, most enzymatic
hydrolysis of macromolecules from food occurs in the small intestine

The small intestine is in fact the alimentary canal’s longest compartment—over 6 m (20 feet)
long in humans.

It is formed of 3 parts: duodenum, jejunum and ileum.

[Link] first 25 cm (10 inches) or so of the small intestine forms the duodenum:

• It is here that chyme from the stomach mixes with digestive juices from the pancreas,
liver, and gallbladder, as well as from gland cells of the intestinal wall itself.
• The arrival of chyme in the duodenum triggers release of the hormone secretin, which
stimulates the pancreas to secrete bicarbonate. Bicarbonate neutralizes the acidity of
chyme and acts as a buffer for chemical digestion in the small intestine.
• The pancreas also secretes numerous digestive enzymes into the small intestine. These
include the proteases trypsin and chymotrypsin, which are produced in inactive forms.
In a chain reaction similar to that for pepsinogen, they are activated when safely
located in the lumen of the duodenum. + Pancreatic amylase for carbohydrate digestion
• The epithelial lining of the duodenum is the source of additional digestive enzymes.
Some are secreted into the lumen of the duodenum, whereas others are bound to the
surface of epithelial cells. Together with the enzymes from the pancreas, they complete
most digestion in the duodenum.

Fats present a particular challenge for digestion:

• Insoluble in water, they form large globules that cannot be attacked efficiently by
digestive enzymes.
• In humans and other vertebrates, fat digestion is facilitated by bile salts, which act as
emulsifiers (detergents) that break apart fat and lipid globules.
• Bile salts are a major component of bile, a secretion of the liver that is stored
and concentrated in the gallbladder.
• Bile production contributes to another vital liver function: the destruction of red blood
cells that are no longer fully functional.
• Pigments released during red blood cell disassembly are incorporated into bile pigments,
which are eliminated from the body with the feces. In some liver and blood disorders,
bile pigments accumulate in the skin, resulting in a yellowing called jaundice.

A hormone called cholecystokinin is secreted by cells in the duodenum and stimulates the release of bile into
the intestine and the secretion of enzymes by the pancreas.

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Absorption in the Small Intestine:
• With digestion largely complete, the contents of the duodenum move by peristalsis into the
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jejunum and ileum, the remaining regions of the small intestine. Lumen
• There, nutrient absorption occurs across the lining of the intestine.
• Large folds in the lining encircle the intestine and are studded with finger-shaped
projections called villi. Within the villi, each epithelial cell has many microscopic
projections, or microvilli, that face the intestinal lumen.
• The many side-by-side microvilli give cells of the intestinal epithelium a brush-like Wall
appearance that is reflected in the name brush border.
• Together, the folds, villi, and microvilli have a surface area of 200–300 m2 , roughly the size
of a tennis court. This enormous surface area is an evolutionary adaptation that greatly
increases the rate of nutrient absorption.

Depending on the nutrient, transport across the epithelial cells

can be passive or active:
1. The sugar fructose, for example, moves by facilitated diffusion down its
concentration gradient from the lumen of the small intestine into the
epithelial cells.
2. Other nutrients, including amino acids, small peptides, vitamins, and
most glucose molecules, are pumped against concentration gradients
into the epithelial cells of the villus by active transport.
• The capillaries and veins that carry nutrient-rich blood away from the villi
converge into the hepatic portal vein, a blood vessel that leads directly
to the liver. From the liver, blood travels to the heart and then to other
tissues and organs.

This arrangement serves two major functions:

1. First, it allows the liver to regulate the distribution of nutrients to the rest of the body. Blood
leaving the liver may have a very different nutrient balance than the blood that entered.
2. Second, the arrangement allows the liver to remove toxic substances before they can
circulate broadly. The liver is the primary site for detoxifying many organic molecules foreign
to the body, such as drugs, and certain metabolic waste products.

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Some products of fat (triglyceride, also known as triacylglycerol) digestion take a
different path:
1. Hydrolysis of a fat by lipase in the small intestine generates fatty acids
and a monoglyceride (glycerol joined to a fatty acid).
2. These products are absorbed by epithelial cells and recombined into
triglycerides.
3. They are then coated with phospholipids, cholesterol, and proteins,
forming globules called chylomicrons. LDL HDL
4. In exiting the small intestine, chylomicrons first enter a lacteal, a
vessel at the core of each villus.
5. Lacteals are part of the vertebrate lymphatic system, which is a
network of vessels filled with a clear fluid called lymph.
6. Starting at the lacteals, lymph containing the chylomicrons passes
into the larger vessels of the lymphatic system and eventually into
large veins that return the blood directly to the heart.
• In addition to absorbing nutrients, the small intestine recovers water and ions.
• Each day a person consumes about 2 L of water and secretes another 7 L in digestive juices
into the alimentary canal.
• Typically, all but 0.1 L of the water is reabsorbed in the intestines, with most of the recovery
occurring in the small intestine.
• There is no mechanism for active transport of water. Instead, water is reabsorbed by
osmosis when sodium and other ions are pumped out of the lumen of the intestine.

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Processing in the Large Intestine: Colon – Cecum - Rectum
• The alimentary canal ends with the large intestine, which includes the
colon, cecum, and rectum.
• The small intestine connects to the large intestine at a T-shaped junction.
• One arm of the T is the 1.5-m-long colon, which leads to the rectum and
anus.
• The other arm is a pouch called the cecum. The cecum is important for
fermenting ingested material, especially in animals that eat large amounts
of plant material. Compared with many other mammals, humans have a small cecum.
• The appendix, a finger-shaped extension of the human cecum, is thought to serve as a
reservoir for symbiotic microorganisms
• The colon completes the recovery of water that began in the small intestine.
• What remain are the feces, the wastes of the digestive system, which become increasingly
solid as they are moved along the colon by peristalsis.
• It takes approximately 12–24 hours for material to travel the length of the colon.
• If the lining of the colon is irritated—by a viral or bacterial infection, for instance—less
water than normal may be reabsorbed, resulting in diarrhea.
• The opposite problem, constipation, occurs when the feces move along the colon too
slowly. Too much water is reabsorbed, and the feces become compacted.
• The undigested material in feces includes cellulose fiber. Although it provides no caloric
value (energy) to humans, it helps move food along the alimentary canal.
• The community of bacteria living on unabsorbed organic material in the human colon
contributes about one-third of the dry weight of feces.
• As by-products of their metabolism, many colon bacteria generate gases, including
methane and hydrogen sulfide, the latter of which has an offensive odor. These gases and
ingested air are expelled through the anus.
• The terminal portion of the large intestine is the rectum, where the feces are stored until
they can be eliminated.
Between the rectum and the anus are two sphincters:
1. The inner one is involuntary.
2. The outer one is voluntary.
• Periodically, strong contractions of the colon create an urge to defecate.
• Because filling of the stomach triggers a reflex that increases the rate of contractions in
the colon, the urge to defecate often follows a meal.

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The digestive system also includes four accessory organs:
1. The salivary glands
2. liver
3. Gallbladder
4. Pancreas.

The walls of the GI tract consist of four layers of tissue:

1. Mucosa. The innermost tissue layer (the mucous membrane in contact with the
lumen) is the mucosa. All nutrients must cross the mucosa to enter the blood.
2. Submucosa. Next to the mucosa is a layer of connective tissue containing blood
vessels, lymph vessels, and nerves, called the submucosa. Components of food
that are absorbed across the mucosa enter the blood and lymph vessels of the
submucosa.
3. Muscularis. The third layer of GI tract tissue, called the muscularis, is responsible
for motility or movement. The muscularis consists of two or three sublayers of
smooth muscle. In general, the fibers of the inner sublayer are oriented in a
circular fashion around the lumen, whereas those in the outer sublayer are
arranged lengthwise, parallel to the long axis of the digestive tube. The
exception is the stomach, which has a diagonal (oblique) sublayer of muscle
inside the other two.

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4. Serosa. The outermost layer of the GI tract wall, or serosa, is a thin connective tissue sheath that
surrounds and protects the other three layers and attaches the digestive system to the walls of the
body cavities.

Two types of motilities aid digestive processes:

1. Peristalsis propels food forward. Peristalsis begins when a lump of food (called a
bolus) stretches a portion of the GI tract, causing the smooth muscle in front of the
bolus to relax and the muscle behind it to contract. The contractions push the food
forward, stretching the next part of the tube and causing muscle relaxation in front
and contraction behind.
2. Segmentation mixes food. In segmentation, short sections of smooth muscle
contract and relax in seemingly random fashion. The result is a back-and-forth mixing
of the contents of the lumen. Food particles are pressed against the mucosa,
enabling the body to absorb their nutrients. Segmentation occurs primarily in the
small intestine as food is digested and absorbed.

Teeth bite and chew food:

• There are four types of teeth, each specialized for a different purpose.
• The sharp-edged incisors cut food and the pointed canines tear it.
• The flat surfaces of the premolars and molars are well adapted to grinding and
crushing food.
• Children have only 20 teeth. They develop by about age 2 and are gradually
replaced by permanent teeth.
• Permanent teeth usually develop by late adolescence, except for the wisdom teeth (third molars),
which generally appear by age 25. Most adults have 32 permanent teeth.
• Each tooth consists of a visible region called the crown and a region below the gum
line called the root.
• The crown is covered by a layer of enamel, an extremely hard nonliving compound of
calcium and phosphate.
• Beneath the enamel is a bonelike living layer called dentin.
• The soft innermost pulp cavity contains the blood vessels that supply the dentin, as well as the
nerves that cause so much pain when a tooth is in faceted or injured.
• The entire tooth sits in a socket in the jawbone that is lined with periodontal membrane.
• Your mouths contain large numbers of bacteria that flourish on the food that remains between the
teeth. During their metabolism these bacteria release acids that can dissolve enamel, creating
cavities or dental caries. If not treated, cavities deepen, eroding the dentin and pulp cavity and
causing a toothache.
• Tooth decay may inflame the soft gum tissue (gingiva) around the tooth, causing gingivitis.
• Decay that inflames the periodontal membrane leads to periodontitis.
• However, good dental hygiene—including regular exams and teeth cleaning—can prevent most
dental problems from becoming serious.

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 Evolutionary adaptations of vertebrate digestive systems correlate with diet
Dental Adaptations:
Dentition, an animal’s assortment of teeth, is one example of structural variation reflecting diet.

Stomach and Intestinal Adaptations:

• Evolutionary adaptations to differences in diet are sometimes apparent as variations in the
dimensions of digestive organs. For example, large, expandable stomachs are common in
carnivorous vertebrates, which may wait a long time between meals and must eat as much as they
can when they do catch prey.
• Adaptation is also apparent in the length of the digestive system in different vertebrates. In general,
herbivores and omnivores have longer alimentary canals relative to their body size than do
carnivores.
• Plant matter is more difficult to digest than meat because it contains cell walls. A longer digestive
tract furnishes more time for digestion and more surface area for nutrient absorption.

Mutualistic Adaptations: Bacteria flora

• The coexistence of humans and many intestinal bacteria is an example of mutualism, an interaction
between two species that benefits both of them.
• One bacterial inhabitant, Escherichia coli, is so common in the digestive system that its presence in
lakes and streams is a useful indicator of contamination by untreated sewage.
• Some intestinal bacteria produce vitamins, such as vitamin K, biotin, and folic acid, that supplement
our dietary intake when absorbed into the blood. Intestinal bacteria also regulate the development
of the intestinal epithelium and the function of the innate immune system. The bacteria in turn
receive a steady supply of nutrients and a stable host environment.
• Microbiome is the collection of microorganisms living in and on the body.
• Scientists are using a DNA sequencing approach based on the polymerase chain reaction PCR. They
have found more than 400 bacterial species in the human digestive tract.
• Furthermore, researchers have found significant differences in the microbiome associated with diet,
disease, and age.

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• Why the bacterium H. pylori can disrupt stomach health? H. pylori infection led to the near-
complete elimination from the stomach of all other bacterial species.
• Such studies on differences in the microbiome associated with particular diseases hold promise for
the development of new and more effective therapies.

Mutualistic Adaptations in Herbivores

Much of the chemical energy in herbivore diets comes from the cellulose of plant cell walls, but animals
do not produce enzymes that hydrolyze cellulose.

Instead, many vertebrates host large populations of mutualistic bacteria and protists in fermentation
chambers in their alimentary canals. These symbiotic microorganisms have enzymes that can digest
cellulose to simple sugars and other compounds that the animal can absorb.

Feedback circuits regulate digestion, energy storage, and appetite

Regulation of Digestion:
As food reaches each new compartment, it triggers the secretion of digestive juices for the next stage of
processing.

In addition, muscular contractions move the contents farther along the canal. The arrival of food in the
stomach triggers churning and the release of gastric juices.

These events, as well as peristalsis in the small and large intestines, are regulated by the enteric
nervous system, a network of neurons dedicated to the digestive organs.
The endocrine system also plays a critical role in controlling digestion. A series of hormones released by
the stomach and duodenum help ensure that digestive secretions are present only when needed.

Like all hormones, they are transported through the bloodstream. This is true even for the hormone
gastrin, which is secreted by the stomach and targets that same organ.

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Regulation of Energy Storage
• When an animal takes in more energy-rich molecules than it needs for metabolism and activity, it
stores the excess energy.
• In humans, liver and muscle cells serve as the primary sites for energy storage. In these cells, excess
energy from the diet is stored in glycogen, a polymer made up of many glucose units.
• Once glycogen depots are full, any additional excess energy is usually stored in fat in adipose cells.
• At times when fewer calories are taken in than are expended--lack of food—the human body
generally expends liver glycogen first and then draws on muscle glycogen and fat.
• Fats are especially rich in energy; oxidizing a gram of fat liberates about twice the energy liberated
from a gram of carbohydrate or protein***.
• For this reason, adipose tissue provides the most space-efficient way for the body to store large
amounts of energy. Most healthy people have enough stored fat to sustain them through several
weeks without food.

Glucose Homeostasis
• The synthesis and breakdown of glycogen are central not only to energy storage, but also to
maintaining metabolic balance through glucose homeostasis.
• In humans, the normal range for the concentration of glucose in the blood is 70–110 mg/100 mL.
• Because glucose is a major fuel for cellular respiration and a key source of carbon skeletons for
biosynthesis, maintaining blood glucose concentrations near this normal range is essential.

Glucose homeostasis relies predominantly on the antagonistic (opposing) effects of two hormones:

1. Insulin lowers blood glucose and enter it into cells.

2. Glucagon increase blood glucose level.
• When the blood glucose level rises above the normal range, the secretion of insulin triggers the
uptake of glucose from the blood into body cells, decreasing the blood glucose concentration.
• When the blood glucose level drops below the normal range, the secretion of glucagon promotes
the release of glucose into the blood from energy stores, such as liver glycogen, increasing the blood
glucose concentration. The liver is a key site of action for both insulin and glucagon.
• Together, these opposing effects of insulin and glucagon ensure that blood exiting the liver has a
glucose concentration in the normal range at nearly all times.
• Insulin also acts on nearly all body cells to stimulate glucose uptake from blood. A major exception is
brain cells, which can take up glucose whether or not insulin is present. This evolutionary adaptation
ensures that the brain almost always has access to circulating fuel, even if supplies are low.
• Glucagon and insulin are both produced in the pancreas. Clusters of endocrine cells called pancreatic
islets of Langerhans are scattered throughout this organ. Each islet has alpha cells, which make
glucagon, and beta cells, which make insulin.
• Like all hormones, insulin and glucagon are secreted into the interstitial fluid and enter the
circulatory system.
• Overall, hormone-secreting cells make up only 1–2% of the mass of the pancreas. Other cells in the
pancreas produce and secrete bicarbonate ions and the digestive enzymes active in the small
intestine.

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• These secretions are released into small ducts that empty into the pancreatic duct, which leads to
the small intestine. Thus, the pancreas has functions in both the endocrine and digestive systems.

Diabetes Mellitus:
• However, a number of disorders can disrupt glucose homeostasis with potentially serious
consequences, especially for the heart, blood vessels, eyes, and kidneys.
• The best known and most prevalent of these disorders is diabetes mellitus.

The disease diabetes mellitus is caused by:

1. A deficiency of insulin (Type 1).
2. A decreased response to insulin in target tissues (Type 2).
• The blood glucose level rises, but cells are unable to take up enough glucose to meet metabolic
needs. Instead, fat becomes the main substrate for cellular respiration.
• In severe cases, acidic metabolites formed during fat breakdown accumulate in the blood,
threatening life by lowering blood pH and depleting sodium and potassium ions from the body.
• In people with diabetes mellitus, the level of glucose in the blood may exceed the capacity of the
kidneys to reabsorb this nutrient. Glucose that remains in the kidney filtrate is excreted. For this
reason, the presence of sugar in urine is one test for this disorder.
• As glucose is concentrated in the urine, more water is excreted along with it, resulting in excessive
volumes of urine. Diabetes refers to this copious urination, and mellitus refers to the presence of
sugar in urine.
• There are two main types of diabetes mellitus: type 1 and type 2. Each is marked by high blood
glucose levels, but with very different causes.

Type 1 Diabetes
• Also called insulin-dependent diabetes, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the
immune system destroys the beta cells of the pancreas.
• Type 1 diabetes, which usually appears during childhood, destroys the person’s ability to produce
insulin.
• Treatment consists of insulin injections, typically given several times daily.

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• In the past, insulin was extracted from animal pancreases, but now human insulin can be obtained
from genetically engineered bacteria, a relatively inexpensive source.
• Stem cell research may someday provide a cure for type 1 diabetes by generating replacement beta
cells that restore insulin production by the pancreas.

Type 2 Diabetes
• Non-insulin-dependent diabetes, or type 2 diabetes, is characterized by a failure of target cells to
respond normally to insulin.
• Insulin is produced, but target cells fail to take up glucose from the blood, and blood glucose levels
remain elevated.
• Although heredity can play a role in type 2 diabetes, excess body weight and lack of exercise
significantly increase the risk of developing this disorder.
• This form of diabetes generally appears after age 40, but even children can develop the disease,
particularly if they are overweight and sedentary.
• More than 90% of people with diabetes have type 2.
• Many can control their blood glucose levels with regular exercise and a healthy diet; some require
medications.
• The resistance to insulin signaling in type 2 diabetes is sometimes due to a genetic defect in the
insulin receptor or the insulin response pathway.

Regulation of Appetite and Consumption

• Consuming more calories than the body needs for normal metabolism, or over nourishment, can
lead to obesity which refers to the excessive accumulation of fat.
• Obesity, in turn, contributes to a number of health problems, including type 2 diabetes, cancer of
the colon and breast, and cardiovascular disease that can result in heart attacks and strokes.
• A network of neurons relays and integrates information from the digestive system to regulate
secretion of hormones that regulate long-term and short-term appetite.
• The target for these hormones is a “satiety center” in the brain.
• Ghrelin, a hormone secreted by the stomach wall, triggers feelings of hunger before meals.
• In contrast, both insulin and PYY, a hormone secreted by the small intestine after meals, suppress
appetite.
• Leptin, a hormone produced by adipose (fat) tissue, also suppresses appetite and appears to play a
major role in regulating body fat levels.

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 Disorders of the digestive system
Food poisoning • One of the most common conditions worldwide is food poisoning,
caused by food and beverages contaminated with bacteria or their
toxic products.
• Diarrhea and vomiting often accompany food poisoning.
Food allergies • Food allergies can also cause diarrhea, vomiting, and generalized
allergic responses throughout the body.
• Common food allergens include shellfish, wheat, peanuts, and eggs.
Lactose • Human infants are born with the enzyme lactase in their small
intestines for digesting lactose, the primary sugar in milk.
intolerance:
• However, many adults gradually lose the enzyme, and with it their
Difficulty digesting ability to digest lactose. The result is lactose intolerance.
milk • Symptoms of lactose intolerance include diarrhea, gas, bloating, and
abdominal cramps after ingesting milk products.
• Diarrhea occurs because the undigested lactose causes fluid to be
retained in the digestive tract. The gas, bloating, and abdominal
cramps are due to bacterial fermentation of the lactose, which
produces gases.
Peptic ulcers: • Peptic ulcers are painful erosions of the mucosal lining of the stomach
or duodenum.
sores in the
• Most peptic ulcers are associated with infection by one of the few
stomach bacteria that can live in the acidic environment of the stomach, called
Helicobacter pylori.
• The bacterial infection leads to chronic inflammation, an increase in
gastric acid secretion, and damage to the mucosal lining.
• Peptic ulcers can also be caused by excessive use of aspirin or non-
steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
• NSAIDs block the production of the mucus that protects the gastric
mucosa from gastric acid.
Celiac disease • When people with celiac disease (also known as sprue) eat gluten, a
protein found primarily in wheat, rye, and barley, their immune
(gluten
systems respond by damaging or destroying the villi that line the small
intolerance) intestine.
• The result is malabsorption of nutrients of all kinds, not just gluten.
• Celiac disease is an inherited disorder.
• Symptoms vary widely, from acute abdominal pain and vomiting to
chronic fatigue, depression, and eventually malnutrition, depending
on a person’s age, how much gluten they eat, and how sensitive they
are to it.
• A definitive diagnosis is made by a blood test for a certain
autoantibody in the patient’s blood.
Diverticulosis: • Diverticulosis gets its name from its characteristic diverticula (small
sacs produced when the mucosal lining of the large intestine
Weakness in the
protrudes through the other layers of the intestinal wall).

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 wall of the large • Most people with diverticulosis do not experience discomfort, but
sometimes the diverticula become infected or inflamed, in which case
intestine
it is called diverticulitis.
• Antibiotics usually resolve the problem.
• Inadequate dietary fiber is thought to contribute to the development
of diverticulosis. A low-fiber diet produces smaller feces, narrowing
the colon and making its contractions more powerful. This increases
the pressure on colon walls, forcing weak areas outward and forming
diverticula.
Colon polyps: • A polyp is a noncancerous growth that projects from a mucous
membrane.
Noncancerous
• Polyps can develop in many areas of the body, including the colon.
growths • The majority of colon polyps do not become cancerous, but because
most colon cancers start as polyps, doctors recommend removing
them.
• Polyps can be detected and removed in a colonoscopy.
Hepatitis: • Hepatitis refers to inflammation of the liver, generally caused by
viruses or toxic substances.
Inflammation of
• Researchers have identified at least five viruses that cause hepatitis.
the liver The most common are hepatitis A, B, and C.
• Hepatitis A is transmitted by contaminated food or water and causes a
brief illness from which most people recover completely.
• A vaccine is available for hepatitis A.
• Hepatitis B travels in blood or body fluids, so it is usually passed via
contaminated needles, blood transfusions, or sexual contact with
infected individuals.
• hepatitis B can lead to liver failure. Symptoms include jaundice (the
skin takes on a yellowish color due to accumulated bile pigments in
the blood), nausea, fatigue, abdominal pain, and arthritis.
• A vaccine is available for hepatitis B.
• Hepatitis C is also transmitted in infected blood, usually through
contaminated needles or blood transfusions
• Hepatitis C may remain dormant for years but still damage the liver.
Severe cases can lead to chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, or liver cancer.

Gallstones can • The gallbladder normally concentrates bile about 10-fold by removing
about 90% of the water.
obstruct bile flow
• Excessive cholesterol in the bile may precipitate out of solution with
calcium and bile salts, forming hard crystals called gallstones.
• Only about 20% of gallstones ever cause problems, but if the crystals
grow large enough they can obstruct bile flow and cause intense pain,
especially after a meal.
• Treatments include drugs to dissolve the crystals, ultrasound
vibrations or laser treatments to break the stones apart, or surgery to
remove the gallbladder.

cholestectomy
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 Malnutrition: Too • Malnutrition refers to conditions in which human development and
function are compromised by an unbalanced or insufficient diet.
many or too few
• Malnutrition can be caused either by overnutrition or undernutrition.
nutrients Overnutrition can lead to obesity.
• Deficiencies of one or more nutrients can produce specific effects. For
example, years of vitamin A deficiency lead to eye damage and night
blindness. In children, undernutrition stunts growth and increases
susceptibility to infection.
Obesity • Increased body fat.
• Body weight is determined by both internal factors (such as genetic makeup)
and environmental factors (such as activity level and availability of food).
Anorexia nervosa • Several conditions involving digestion and nutrition are really not
digestive disorders at all but eating disorders involving the nervous
system.
• Anorexia nervosa is a condition in which a person diets excessively or
stops eating altogether, even to the point of starvation and death.
Symptoms include the following:
1. Refusal to maintain healthy body weight; people with anorexia often
weigh less than 85% of their ideal weight.
2. Intense fear of gaining weight, even though underweight.
3. Distorted perception or preoccupation with body weight or shape.
4. In premenopausal women, the absence of at least three consecutive
menstrual cycles. Severe undernutrition interferes with the hormonal
cycles of menstruation. Male anorexics also experience hormonal
abnormalities.
5. Anorexics become malnourished and suffer insomnia, hair loss, fatigue, and
moodiness. Over time, they lose bone mass and develop osteoporosis.
Bulimia • Bulimia is a binge-and-purge condition in which someone eats and
deliberately vomits or takes other steps to minimize the Calories
ingested.
Symptoms of bulimia include the following:
1. Recurrent episodes of binge eating.
2. An episode of binge eating involves both (1) eating large amounts of
food and (2) feeling a lack of control over eating.
3. Taking recurrent inappropriate steps to prevent weight gain, such as
self-induced vomiting; misusing laxatives, diuretics, enemas, or other
medications; fasting; or exercising excessively.
4. Binge eating and compensatory behaviors that occur, on average, at
least twice a week for three months.
5. Repeated trauma to a bulimic’s digestive system leads to ulcers,
chronic heartburn, and rectal bleeding. Recurrent vomiting damages
gums, erodes tooth enamel, and makes salivary glands swell, giving a
chipmunk-like appearance.
6. Doctors are not sure what causes eating disorders, but there appear to
be deep-rooted psychological and cultural factors.
Thanks

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