Organs Associated with the

Digestive Tract
Major Salivary Glands
Pancreas
Liver
Gallbladder
 Organs Associated with the GIT
• Products facilitate transport and digestion of food within the Gastrointestinal tract.
• Salivary glands
• Moisten and lubricate ingested food and oral mucosa
• Initiate digestion of carbohydrates and lipids
• Secrete innate immune components such as lysozyme and lactoferrin
• Pancreas
• Secretes digestive enzymes that act in the small intestines abd hormones important for
metabolism of absorbed nutrients
• Liver
• Produces bile (stored in the gallbladder) important for digestion and absorption of fats
• Plays a major role in carbohydrate and protein metabolism
• Inactivates many toxic substances and drugs
• Synthesize most plasma proteins and blood coagulation factors
Salivary Glands
 Salivary Glands
• Encapsulated exocrine glands in the mouth
• 3 pairs of Major Salivary Glands:
1. Parotid Gland
2. Submandibular Gland
3. Sublingual Gland
• Numerous minor or intrinsic salivary glands throughout most of the
oral mucosa
• Parenchyma consists of secretory units on a branching duct system
arranged in lobules, separated by septa of connective tissue.
 Duct
Serous Acini Duct

Mucinous
Acini

Duct

Mucinous Acini

Serous Acini

Duct
 Three epithelial cell types of salivary secretory unit

1. Serous cells
• polarized protein-secreting cells
• usually pyramidal in shape with
round nuclei, well-stained RER, and
apical secretory granules
• “ACINUS” spherical unit of serous
cells joined apically by tight and
adherent junctions
• secretes enzymes and other proteins
Three epithelial cell types of salivary secretory unit

2. Mucous cells
• More columnar in shape, with
more compressed basal nuclei
• contain apical granules with
hydrophilic mucins (lubrications)
• often organized as cylindrical
tubules rather than acini
• Mixed salivary glands have
tubuloacinar secretory units with
both serous and mucous secretion
 Three epithelial cell types of salivary secretory unit
3. Myoepithelial cells
• found inside the basal lamina
surrounding acini, tubules and the
proximal ends of the duct system
• Small, flattened cells with extends
contractile processes around the
associated secretory unit or duct
• Contraction is important for
moving secretory products into
and through the ducts
Duct System
• Intralobular duct, secretory acini,
and tubules empty into short
Intercalated ducts
• lined by cuboidal epithelium
• Several intecalated ducts join to
form a Striated ducts
• lined by columnar epithelium
• reabsorb Na+ ions from iintial
secretion
• All striated ducts empty into the
Excretory duct
 Major Salivary Glands
1. Parotid Gland
• located in each cheeck near the
ear
• branched acinar glands with
exclusively serous acini
• serous cells secrete abundant α-
amylase
• initiates digestion of carbohydrates
Major Salivary Glands
2. Submandibular Glands
• brached tubuloacinar glands
• serous acini and mucous tubular
cells in a crescent-arrangement
called serous demilunes
• also secretes α-amylase
• main product: lysozyme
• hydrolysis of bacterial cell walls
 Major Salivary Glands
3. Sublingual Glands
• smallest of the major glands
• branched tubuloacinar glands with
predominance of mucous cells
• main product: Mucin
• also capable of secreting amylase
and lysozyme
Major Salivary Glands
Pancreas
 Pancreas
• A mixed exocrine-endocrine gland
that produces both digestive
enzymes and hormones
• An elongated retroperitoneal organ
with large head near the duodenum
and more narrow body and tal
regions that extends to the left
 Pancreas
• has a thin capsule from which
septa to separate the
parenchyma into lobules
• rich in reticular fibers with a
rich capillary network
• Endocrine function involves
primarily smaller cells in
variously sized clusters:
“Pancreatic Islets (Islets of
Langerhans)”
Pancreas
• Serous acini
• lacks myoepithelial cells, striated
ducts
• larger portion of the pancreas
• produces digestive enzymes
• polarized cells with round basal
nuclei and numerous zymogen
granules apically
Pancreas
• Serous acini
• drained by a short intercalated duct (simple
squamous or low cuboidal epithelium) with
its centroacinar cells which secretes large
volume of fluids rich in HCO3-
• alkalinizes and transport hydrolytic
enzymes produced in the acini.
• merge with intralobular ducts and larger
interlobular ducts with increasingly
columnar epithelium
• joins the main pancreatic duct (“Duct of
Wirsung”)
 Exocrine Pancreas
• secretes approximately 1.5L of
alkaline pancreatic juice per day
• delivers it directly into the duodenum
through the Ampulla of Vater
• HCO3- neutralizes the acidic chyme
entering from the stomach and
establish the pH optimum for the
activity of the pancreatic enzymes
 Exocrine Pancreas
• Pancreatic Enzymes
• Proteases:
• Trypsinogen
• Chymotrypsinogen
• proelastase
• Kallikreinogen
• Procarvoxypeptidases
• α-amylase
• Lipase
• Nucleases (DNAses and RNAses)
• Protection against autodigestion:
1. Restricting protease activation to
the duodenum
• Trypsinogen is cleaved and activated
by enteropeptidases in the duodenum
• Trypsin that activates other proteases
2. Trypsin inhibitor, copackaged in
the secretory granules with
trypsinogen
3. Higher pH in the acini and duct
system (↑HCO3-) which helps
keep all the enzymes inactive
 2 hormones that regulate the exocrine pancreas

Cholecystokinin
• stimulates enzyme secretion by
the acinar cells
• produced by enteroendocrine
cells in the small intestine
Secretin
• promotes water and HCO3-
secretion by the duct cells
• produced by enteroendocrine
cells in the small intestine
 Endocrine Pancreas
• Pancreatic Islets (Islets of
Langerhans)
• compact, spherical or ovoid
masses of endocrine cells
embedded within the acinar
exocrine tissue of the pancreas
• separated from the exocrine acini
by a very thin capsule surrounding
the islets
 Endocrine Pancreas
• 3 cell
1. α or A cells - secrete primarily glucagon
• increases glucose in the blood through glucogenesis and gluconeogensis
2. β or B cells - produce insulin
• causes glucose to enter into cells promoting decrease of glucose in the blood
3. δ or D cells - secretes somatostatin
• inhibbits release of other islets hormones through local paracrine action
• inhibit the release of Growth Hormone and TSH in the anterior pituitary gland
• inihibt the secretion of HCl by gastric parietal cells
Liver
 Liver
• Largest internal organ in the human body
• located at the right upper quadrant of the
abdomen just below the diaphragm
• has a capsule that covers the organ and divides it
into lobes
• the capsule thickens at the hilum (porta hepatis)
• Dual blood supply
• Hepatic Portal Vein
• Hepatic Artery
 Hepatocytes
• major cells of the liver
• Functions:
1. Production of bile
2. Synthesis and endocrine secretion of major plasma proteins (albumin, fibrinogen,
apolipoproteins, transferrin, etc)
3. Conversion of amino acids into glucose (gluconeogenesis)
4. Detoxifcation (breakdown) and conjugation of ingested toxins
5. Amino acid deamination, producing urea
6. Storage of glucose in glycogen granules and triglycerides in small lipid droplets
7. Storage of Vitamin A in hepatic stellate cells and other fat soluble vitamins
8. Removal of effete erythrocytes by Kupffer cells (specialized macrophages)
9. Storage of Iron in complexes with protein ferritin
 Hepatic Lobule
• the basic functional unit of the
liver
• composed of:
• hepatocytes
• central vein
• portal triad:
• branch of the portal vein
• branch of the hepatic artery
• branch of the bile duct
 Hepatic Lobule
• Vascular Sinusoids
• located in between hepatocytes
• emerge from the peripheral branches of the portal vein and hepatic artery
and converge on the lobule’s central vein
• lined by discontinuous fenestrated endothelial cells
 Hepatic Lobule
• Space of Disse
• a perisinusoidal space between
haptoocytes an the sinusoidal
endothelial cells
• fills with plasma which seeped out
from the endothelial cells
• site of uptake and release of
nutrients, proteins, and potential
toxins
 2 cells in the Vascular Sinusoids
Kupffer Cells Ito Cells
• Specialized stellate macrophages • Hepatic stellate cells with small lipid droplets
• Recognize and phagocytose aged • Stores Vitamin A and other lipid-soluble
erythrocytes, freeing heme and iron vitamins
• Also function as an Antigen-Presenting Cell • capable of regenerating the liver in times of
and remove bacteria or debris present in the injury by transforming into myofibroblast
portal blood producing the ECM
• Regulates Kupffer Cell activity
 Hepatic Organization
1. Classic Lobule
• concept offers a basic
understanding of the structure-
function relationship in liver
organization
• emphasizes the endocrine
function of hepatocytes as blood
flows past them toward the
central vein
 Hepatic Organization
2. Portal Lobule
• emphasizes on the hepatocyte’s
exocrine function and the flow of
bile from regions of the classic
lobules toward the bile duct in the
portal triad
 Hepatic Organization
3. Hepatic Acinus
• emphasizes the different oxygen
and nutrient contents of the blood
at different distances along the
sinusoids
• based on the distance from the
hepatic artery
• Zone 1 - most oxygenated
• Zone 2
• Zone 3 - least oxygenated
Biliary Tract and
the Gallbladder
 Biliary Tract
• Bile produced by the hepatocytes
flows through the
• Bile canaliculi
• Bile ductules
• Bile duct
Biliary Tract
• Converge together form the Right and
Left Hepatic Duct
• Then forms the Common Hepatic Duct
• Joins the Cystic Duct from the gallbladder
• Continuous to the duodenum as the
Common Bile Duct
• All are lined by simple columnar
epithelium with mucous membrance
• “Cholangiocytes”
 Gallblladder
• a hollow, pear-shaped organ
attached to the lower surface of
the liver
• stores 30-50ml of bile
Gallblladder
• Lacks submucosa unlike the
other hollow organs of the GIT
• Mucosa: Simple Columnar
Epithelium (Cholangiocytes) with
thin lamina propia
• Muscularis: bundles of muscle
fibers oriented in several
directions
• Adventitia or Serosa
 Gallbladder
• Cholecystokinin
• induce contraction of the
gallbladder muscularis
• released from neuroendocrine
cells of the small intestine
• stimulated by the presence of
ingested fat in the small
intestine
END