THE ALIMENTARY TRACT: GI segments
THE ALIMENTARY TRACT: Accessory organs
Functions of the Alimentary Tract
Provides the body with a continual supply of water, electrolytes, vitamins, and nutrients, by:
Each part of the Alimentary Tract is adapted to its specific functions:
LAYERS
Gastrointestinal smooth muscle function as a syncytium
• Within each bundle, muscle fibers are electrically connected with one another through gap junctions → low-resistance movement of ions
• Electrical signals that initiate contractions → travel readily
from one fiber to the next within each bundle but more
rapidly along the length of the bundle than sideways.
• Each bundle is partly separated from the next by loose connective tissue, but the muscle bundles fuse with one another at many points
Gastrointestinal smooth muscle function as a syncytium 2
• Each muscle layer represents a branching latticework of
smooth muscle bundles.
• Each muscle layer functions as a syncytium → when an action potential is elicited anywhere within the muscle mass, it generally travels in all directions in the muscle.
Electrical Activity of GI Smooth Muscle
Electrical Activity of GI Smooth Muscle • Excited by almost continual slow, intrinsic electrical activity along the membranes of the muscle fibers • SLOW WAVES • SPIKE POTENTIALS • TONIC CONTRACTIONS - Exhibited by some GI Smooth Muscles - No slow waves - Last minutes to hours
SLOW WAVES
SPIKE POTENTIALS
TONIC CONTRACTIONS
Factors that depolarized the membrane (less negative; more excitable)
Factors that make the membrane hyperpolarized (more negative; less excitable)
2. stimulation of the sympathetic nerve (secrete norepinephrine at their endings)
MECHANISMS FOR TONIC CONTRACTIONS:
• Continuous Repetitive Spike Potentials → the greater the
frequency, the greater the degree of contraction
• Hormones → continuous partial depolarization of the smooth
muscle membrane without causing action potentials
• Continuous entry of Calcium (unclear mechanism)
ENTERIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
NEURAL CONTROL OF GI TRACT
• Intrinsic Control - Enteric nervous system
• Extrinsic Control - Autonomic nervous system
MYENTERIC (AUERBACH’S) PLEXUS
SUBMUCOSAL (MEISSNER’S) PLEXUS
• Consists mostly of a linear chain of many interconnecting
neurons that extends the entire length of the GI tract.
• Concerned mainly with controlling muscle activity along the length of the gut, because:
- It extends all the way along the intestinal wall
- It lies between the longitudinal and circular layers of intestinal smooth muscle.
MYENTERIC PLEXUS
• Not entirely excitatory, some of its neurons are inhibitory
• Fiber endings secrete an inhibitory transmitter, possibly
VASOACTIVE INTESTINAL POLYPEPTIDE or some other inhibitory peptide.
• Inhibitory signals affect intestinal sphincters impeding
movement of food along the GI tract:
- Pyloric sphincter – emptying of the stomach into the duodenum
- Sphincter of the ileocecal valve – emptying from the SI
into the cecum
MYENTERIC PLEXUS
Principal effects of Myenteric Plexus when stimulated:
SUBMUCOSAL PLEXUS
ENTERIC NEUROTRANSMITTERS
* Norepinephrine/Epinephrine – most often inhibitory
* Sympathetic stimulation usually inhibits GIT activity
AUTONOMIC CONTROL OF GIT