Animal Physiology

• Animal physiology is the study of how animals

work, and investigates the biological
processes that occur for animal life to exist. These
processes can be studied at various levels of
organization from membranes through
to organelles, cells, organs, organ systems, and to
the whole animal. Animal physiology examines
how biological processes function, how they
operate under various environmental conditions,
and how these processes are regulated and
integrated.
• The study of animal physiology is closely
linked with anatomy (i.e., the relationship of
function with structure) and with the basic
physical and chemical laws that constrain
living as well as nonliving systems.
• Although all animals must function within
basic physical and chemical constraints, there
is a diversity of mechanisms and processes by
which different animals work.
Digestive system
• Digestive system is a group of organs that
work together to digest and absorb nutrients
from the food you eat.
• Digestion is a complicated process, and
conditions
• The alimentary tract provides the body with a continual
supply of water, electrolytes, vitamins, and nutrients.
• To achieve this requires
• (1) movement of food through the alimentary tract;
• (2) secretion of digestive juices and digestion of the food;
• (3) absorption of water, various electrolytes, vitamins, and
digestive products;
• (4) circulation of blood through the gastrointestinal organs
to carry away the absorbed substances; and
• (5) control of all these functions by local, nervous, and
hormonal systems.
• Each part is adapted to its specific functions:
some to simple passage of food, such as the
esophagus; others to temporary storage of
food, such as the stomach; and others to
digestion and absorption, such as the small
intestine.
 Physiologic Anatomy of the
Gastrointestinal Wall
• the intestinal wall, including the following
layers from outer surface inward:
• (1) the serosa,
• (2) a longitudinal smooth muscle layer,
• (3) a circular smooth muscle layer,
• (4) the submucosa, and
• (5) the mucosa.
• In addition, sparse bundles of smooth muscle
fibers, the mucosal muscle, lie in the deeper
layers of the mucosa.
• The motor functions of the gut are performed
by the different layers of smooth muscle.
Mechanism of digestion
• The time that food remains in each part of the
alimentary tract is critical for optimal processing
and absorption of nutrients.
• Also, appropriate mixing must be provided.
Because the requirements for mixing and
propulsion are quite different at each stage of
processing, multiple automatic nervous and
hormonal mechanisms control the timing of each
of these so that they will occur optimally, not too
rapidly, not too slowly
 Ingestion of Food
• The amount of food that a person ingests is
determined principally by intrinsic desire for
food called hunger. The type of food that a
person preferentially seeks is determined by
appetite.
• food ingestion is confined to the mechanics of
ingestion, especially mastication and
swallowing.
 Mastication (Chewing)
• The teeth are admirably designed for chewing.
The anterior teeth (incisors) provide a strong
cutting action and the posterior teeth (molars)
a grinding action.
• All the jaw muscles working together can close
the teeth with a force as great as 55 pounds
on the incisors and 200 pounds on the molars.
• Most of the muscles of chewing are innervated by
the motor branch of the fifth cranial nerve, and
the chewing process is controlled by nuclei in the
brain stem.
• Stimulation of specific reticular areas in the brain
stem taste centers will cause rhythmical chewing
movements.
• Also, stimulation of areas in the hypothalamus,
amygdala, and even the cerebral cortex near the
sensory areas for taste and smell can often cause
chewing.
• Much of the chewing process is caused by a
chewing reflex.
• The presence of a bolus of food in the mouth
at first initiates reflex inhibition of the muscles
of mastication, which allows the lower jaw to
drop.
• The drop in turn initiates a stretch reflex of
the jaw muscles that leads to rebound
contraction.
• This automatically raises the jaw to cause
closure of the teeth, but it also compresses
the bolus again against the linings of the
mouth, which inhibits the jaw muscles once
again, allowing the jaw to drop and rebound
another time; this is repeated again and again.
• Chewing is important for digestion of all
foods, but especially important for most fruits
and raw vegetables because these have
indigestible cellulose membranes around their
nutrient portions that must be broken before
the food can be digested. Also, chewing aids
the digestion of food for still another simple
reason
• : Digestive enzymes act only on the surfaces of
food particles; therefore, the rate of digestion is
absolutely dependent on the total surface area
exposed to the digestive secretions.
• In addition, grinding the food to a very fine
particulate consistency prevents excoriation of
the gastrointestinal tract and increases the ease
with which food is emptied from the stomach into
the small intestine, then into all succeeding
segments of the gut.
• Swallowing (Deglutition) Swallowing is a
complicated mechanism, principally because
the pharynx subserves respiration and
swallowing.
• The pharynx is converted for only a few
seconds at a time into a tract for propulsion of
food.
• It is especially important that respiration not
be compromised because of swallowing.
• In general, swallowing can be divided into
• (1) a voluntary stage, which initiates the
swallowing process;
• (2) a pharyngeal stage, which is involuntary
and constitutes passage of food through the
pharynx into the esophagus; and
• (3) an esophageal stage, another involuntary
phase that transports food from the pharynx
to the stomach.
• Voluntary Stage of Swallowing
• When the food is ready for swallowing, it is
“voluntarily” squeezed or rolled posteriorly
into the pharynx by pressure of the tongue
upward and backward against the palate
 Pharyngeal Stage of Swallowing.
• As the bolus of food enters the posterior mouth and
pharynx, it stimulates epithelial swallowing receptor
areas all around the opening of the pharynx, especially
on the tonsillar pillars, and impulses from these pass
to the brain stem to initiate a series of automatic
pharyngeal muscle contractions as follows:
• 1. The soft palate is pulled upward to close the
posterior nares, to prevent reflux of food into the
nasal cavities.
• 2. The palatopharyngeal folds on each side of the
pharynx are pulled medially to approximate each
other.
• In this way, these folds form a sagittal slit through
which the food must pass into the posterior
pharynx.
• This slit performs a selective action, allowing food
that has been masticated sufficiently to pass with
ease.
• Because this stage of swallowing lasts less than 1
second, any large object is usually impeded too
much to pass into the esophagus.
• The vocal cords of the larynx are strongly
approximated, and the larynx is pulled upward
and anteriorly by the neck muscles.
• These actions, combined with the presence of
ligaments that prevent upward movement of
the epiglottis, cause the epiglottis to swing
backward over the opening of the larynx.
• All these effects acting together prevent
passage of food into the nose and trachea.
• Most essential is the tight approximation of
the vocal cords, but the epiglottis helps to
prevent food from ever getting as far as the
vocal cords.
• Destruction of the vocal cords or of the
muscles that approximate them can cause
strangulation.
• 4. The upward movement of the larynx also
pulls up and enlarges the opening to the
esophagus. At the same time, the upper 3 to 4
centimeters of the esophageal muscular wall,
called the upper esophageal sphincter (also
called the pharyngoesophageal sphincter),
relaxes. Thus, food moves easily and freely
from the posterior pharynx into the upper
esophagus.
• Between swallows, this sphincter remains strongly
contracted, thereby preventing air from going into
the esophagus during respiration.
• The upward movement of the larynx also lifts the
glottis out of the main stream of food flow, so the
food mainly passes on each side of the epiglottis
rather than over its surface; this adds still another
protection against entry of food into the trachea.
• 5. Once the larynx is raised and the
pharyngoesophageal sphincter becomes
relaxed, the entire muscular wall of the
pharynx contracts, beginning in the superior
part of the pharynx, then spreading
downward over the middle and inferior
pharyngeal areas, which propels the food by
peristalsis into the esophagus
• To summarize the mechanics of the
pharyngeal stage of swallowing: The trachea is
closed, the esophagus is opened, and a fast
peristaltic wave initiated by the nervous
system of the pharynx forces the bolus of food
into the upper esophagus, the entire process
occurring in less than 2 seconds.
• Esophageal Stage of Swallowing. The
esophagus functions primarily to conduct food
rapidly from the pharynx to the stomach, and
its movements are organized specifically for
this function.
• The esophagus normally exhibits two types of
peristaltic movements: primary peristalsis and
secondary peristalsis.
• Primary peristalsis is simply continuation of
the peristaltic wave that begins in the pharynx
and spreads into the esophagus during the
pharyngeal stage of swallowing.
• This wave passes all the way from the pharynx
to the stomach in about 8 to 10 seconds.
• Food swallowed by a person who is in the
upright position is usually transmitted to the
lower end of the esophagus even more rapidly
than the peristaltic wave itself, in about 5 to 8
seconds, because of the additional effect of
gravity pulling the food downward.
• Function of the Lower Esophageal Sphincter
(Gastroesophageal Sphincter).
• At the lower end of the esophagus, extending upward
about 3 centimeters above its juncture with the
stomach, the esophageal circular muscle functions as a
broad lower esophageal sphincter, also called the
gastroesophageal sphincter.
• This sphincter normally remains tonically constricted
with an intraluminal pressure at this point in the
esophagus of about 30 mm Hg, in contrast to the
midportion of the esophagus, which normally remains
relaxed.
• The stomach secretions are highly acidic and
contain many proteolytic enzymes.
• The esophageal mucosa, except in the lower one
eighth of the esophagus, is not capable of
resisting for long the digestive action of gastric
secretions.
• Fortunately, the tonic constriction of the lower
esophageal sphincter helps to prevent significant
reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus
except under abnormal conditions.
 Motor Functions of the Stomach
• The motor functions of the stomach are threefold:
• (1)storage of large quantities of food until the
food can be processed in the stomach,
duodenum, and lower intestinal tract;
• (2) mixing of this food with gastric secretions until
it forms a semifluid mixture called chyme; and
• (3) slow emptying of the chyme from the stomach
into the small intestine at a rate suitable for
proper digestion and absorption by the small
intestine.
• the basic anatomy of the stomach.
Anatomically, the stomach is usually divided
into two major parts:
• (1) the body and (2) the antrum.
• Physiologically, it is more appropriately
divided into (1) the “orad” portion, comprising
about the first two thirds of the body, and
• (2) the “caudad” portion, comprising the
remainder of the body plus the antrum.
 Storage Function of the Stomach
• As food enters the stomach, it forms concentric circles of
the food in the orad portion of the stomach, the newest
food lying closest to the esophageal opening and the oldest
food lying nearest the outer wall of the stomach.
• Normally, when food stretches the stomach, a “vagovagal
reflex” from the stomach to the brain stem and then back
to the stomach reduces the tone in the muscular wall of the
body of the stomach so that the wall bulges progressively
outward, accommodating greater and greater quantities of
food up to a limit in the completely relaxed stomach of 0.8
to 1.5 liters.
• The pressure in the stomach remains low until this limit is
approached.
• Mixing and Propulsion of Food in the Stomach— Basic Electrical
Rhythm of the Stomach Wall The digestive juices of the stomach
are secreted by gastric glands, which are present in almost the
entire wall of the body of the stomach except along a narrow strip
on the lesser curvature of the stomach.
• These secretions come immediately into contact with that portion
of the stored food lying against the mucosal surface of the
stomach. As long as food is in the stomach, weak peristaltic
constrictor waves, called mixing waves, begin in the mid to upper
portions of the stomach wall and move toward the antrum about
once every 15 to 20 seconds.
• These waves are initiated by the gut wall basic electrical rhythm,
consisting of electrical “slow waves” that occur spontaneously in
the stomach
• the moving peristaltic constrictive ring, combined with
this upstream squeezing action, called “retropulsion,”
is an exceedingly important mixing mechanism in the
stomach.
• Chyme. After food in the stomach has become
thoroughly mixed with the stomach secretions, the
resulting mixture that passes down the gut is called
chyme. The degree of fluidity of the chyme leaving the
stomach depends on the relative amounts of food,
water, and stomach secretions and on the degree of
digestion that has occurred. The appearance of chyme
is that of a murky semifluid or paste.
• Stomach Emptying Stomach emptying is
promoted by intense peristaltic contractions
in the stomach antrum.
• At the same time, emptying is opposed by
varying degrees of resistance to passage of
chyme at the pylorus.
Movements of the Small Intestine
• The movements of the small intestine, like
those elsewhere in the gastrointestinal tract,
can be divided into mixing contractions and
propulsive contractions.
 Colon
• The principal functions of the colon are
• (1) absorption of water and electrolytes from
the chyme to form solid feces and
• (2) storage of fecal matter until it can be
expelled.