Unit 1.

Digestion, Absorption and

Transport

TEACHER: ADRIANA PATRICIA DE LA FUENTE MÉNDEZ

 Topics
Unit 1
Digestion, Absorption and Transport

1.1 Digestion
1.1.1. Anatomy of digestive tract
1.2 Absorption
1.2.1. Anatomy of Absorptive System
1.3 Circulatory Systems
 1.1 .Digestion

Is the body’s ingenious way of breaking down foods into nutrients in

preparation for absorption. In the process, it overcomes many
challenges without any conscious effort.

1.1.1. Anatomy of digestive tract

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is

a flexible muscular tube that
extends from the mouth, through
the esophagus, stomach, small
intestine, large intestine, and
rectum to the anus.
 Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm3oIX6jjn4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og5xAdC8EUI

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 TECHNICAL WORDS

Mouth The process of digestion begins in the mouth. During chewing,

teeth crush large pieces of food into smaller ones, and fluids from foods,
beverages, and salivary glands blend with these pieces to ease
swallowing.

After a mouthful of food has been chewed and swallowed, it is called a

bolus.
 TECHNICAL WORDS

Esophagus to the Stomach The esophagus has a sphincter muscle at

each end.
During a swallow, the upper esophageal sphincter opens. The bolus
then slides down the esophagus, which passes through a to the
stomach. The lower esophageal sphincter at the entrance to the
stomach closes behind the bolus so that it proceeds forward and
doesn’t slip back into the esophagus.
The stomach retains the bolus for a while in its upper portion. Little
by little, the stomach transfers the food to its lower portion, adds
juices to it, and grinds it to a semiliquid mass called chyme. Then, bit
by bit, the stomach releases the chyme through the pyloric sphincter,
which opens into the small intestine and then closes behind the
chyme.
Small Intestine At the beginning of the small intestine, the chyme by
passes the opening from the common bile duct, which is dripping
fluids into the small intestine from two organs outside the GI tract—
the gallbladder and the pancreas. The chyme travels on down the
small intestine through its three segments—the duodenum, the
jejunum, and the ileum—almost 10 feet of tubing coiled within the
abdomen.

Small Intestine Gallbladder Pancreas

Large Intestine (Colon) Having traveled the length of the small intestine,
the remaining contents arrive at another sphincte: the ileocecal valve,
located at the beginning of the large intestine (colon) in the lower right
side of the abdomen. Upon entering the colon, the contents pass
another opening. Should any intestinal contents slip into this opening, it
would end up in the appendix, a blind sac about the size of your little
finger.
Normally, the contents bypass this opening, however, and travel along
the large intestine up the right side of the abdomen, across the front to
the left side, down to the lower left side, and finally below the other
folds of the intestines to the back of the body, above the rectum as the
intestinal contents pass to the rectum, the colon withdraws water,
leaving semisolid waste. The strong muscles of the rectum and anal
canal hold back this waste until it is time to defecate. Then the rectal
muscles relax ,and the two sphincters of the anus open to allow passage
of the waste.
 1.2 Absorption
Within three or four hours after a person has eaten a
dinner, the body must find a way to absorb the molecules
derived from carbohydrate, protein, and fat digestion—
and the vitamin and mineral molecules as well. Most
absorption takes place in the small intestine, one of the
most elegantly designed organ systems in the body.

To remove the absorbed molecules rapidly and provide

room for more to be absorbed, a rush of circulating blood
continuously washes the underside of this surface,
carrying the absorbed nutrients away to the liver and
other parts of the body.
 1.2.1. Anatomy of Absorptive System

The inner surface of the

small intestine looks smooth
and slippery, but when
viewed through a
microscope, it turns out to
be wrinkled into hundreds
of folds. Each fold is
contoured into thousands of
finger like projections, as
numerous as the hairs on
velvet fabric.
 1.2.1. Anatomy of Absorptive System

These small intestinal

projections are the villi. A
single villus, magnified still
more, turns out to be
composed of hundreds of
cells, each covered with its
own microscopic hairs, the
microvilli. In the crevices
between the villi lie the
crypts—tubular glands that
secrete the intestinal juices
into the small intestine.
 Preparing Nutrients for Transport
When a nutrient molecule has crossed the cell of a villus, it enters either
the bloodstream or the lymphatic system. Both transport systems supply
vessels to each villus. The watersoluble nutrients and the smaller products
of fat digestion are released directly into the bloodstream and guided
directly to the liver where their fate and destination will be determined.

The larger fats and the fat-soluble vitamins are insoluble in water, however,
and blood is mostly water. The intestinal cells assemble many of the
products of fat digestion into larger molecules. These larger molecules
cluster together with special proteins, forming chylomicrons. Because these
chylomicrons cannot pass into the capillaries, they are released into the
lymphatic system instead; the chylomicrons move through the lymph and
later enter the bloodstream at a point near the heart, thus bypassing the
liver at first.
 1.3 Circulatory system
Once a nutrient has entered the bloodstream, it
may be transported to any of the cells in the body.
The circulatory systems deliver nutrients wherever
they are needed.
The vascular, or blood circulatory system is a closed
system of vessels through which blood flows
continuously, with the heart serving as the pump.
 Circulatory System
Video
• https://www.mayoclinic.org/es-es/diseases-co
nditions/heart-disease/multimedia/circulatory
-system/vid-20084745

https://create.kahoot.it/my-library/kahoots/21571351-
0490-449e-832b-7ffa401162c0
 Bibliography
• Whitney, R. (2011). Understanding Nutrition.
Belmont, CA, USA: Wadsworth Cegage
Learning.

•Material de Apoyo

•https://muschealth.org/medical-services/ddc/patients/digesti
ve-organs

•https://www.mayoclinic.org/es-es/diseases-conditions/heart-d
isease/multimedia/circulatory-system/vid-20084745