PANCREAS

General Structure and Function of Pancreas : The pancreas is a serous, compound acinar gland that resembles the parotid gland in its microscopic appearance. important member of digestive system.

It differs in that it lacks striated ducts and contains islets of Langerhans.

The lobules of the pancreas contain serous adenomeres that secrete a variety of digestive enzymes into a branched duct system that empties into the duodenum.

SALIVARY GLANDS

A. General Structure and Function: Three major pairs of glands, the parotid, submandibular, and sublingual, surround the oral cavity. The lobules of each gland contain numerous adenomeres that empty their secretions (saliva) through a series of intercalated, striated, and interlobular ducts into the oral cavity. The saliva moistens the food, lubricates the digestive tract, and begins the enzymatic digestion of carbohydrates. The glands also excrete certain salts; they protect against bacterial invasion through the mouth by releasing lysozyme and IgA into the saliva.


B. Cell Types:

1. Serous and mucous cells are the predominant secretory cells of salivary adenomeres of digestive system. The key to identifying the 3 types of salivary glands in tissue sections lies in knowing the differences in the staining properties of the cells, their organization, and the proportion of each type found in each gland. a. Serous cells. These relatively small basophilic cells produce a protein-rich, watery secretion and usually form acinar (spheric) adenomeres. b. Mucous cells. Larger and more acidophilic than the serous cells, these may have a foamy appearance. They produce a thick glycosaminoglycan-rich secretion (mucus) and usually form tubular adenomeres.


C. Parotid Glands: These branched acinar glands contain almost exclusively serous secretory cells. The granules in these cells are PAS-positive (owing to their polysaccharide content) and are rich in protein. Parotid secretions, about 25% of the total salivary volume.

D. Submandibular (Submaxillary) Glands: These branched tubuloacinar glands, which produce about 70% of the salivary volume, contain both serous and mucous adenomeres (mostly serous). The serous acini are composed of small basophilic cells with PAS-positive cytoplasm and basal membrane infoldings.

E. Sublingual Glands: These are also branched tubuloalveolar glands containing both mucous and serous cells (mostly mucous). While only mucous adenomeres are present, many are capped by serous demilunes. These glands produce about 5% of the salivary volume.

ANAL CANAL

APPENDIX (VERMIFORM APPENDIX)

-This is a narrow fingerlike evagination of the inferior end of the cecum. Histologically, it resembles the colon except that it has a smaller lumen, fewer and shorter crypts, many more lymphoid nodules, and no teniae coli.

-ANAL CANAL
-In humans, this canal is about 4 cm long and connects the rectum and the anal opening. The mucosa of the first 2 cm has typical colonic epithelium with very short crypts. This is replaced by stratified squamous epithelium, which continues to the anal opening.

LARGE INTESTINE (COLON)

This includes the cecum; the ascending, transverse, descending, and sigmoid colon; and the rectum. It converts undigested material received from the small intestine into feces by removing water and adding mucus. The colon is shorter than the small intestine and has a wider lumen. The colon's lining has no folds, except in the rectum. No villi are present. The epithelium is simple columnar with a great abundance of goblet cells. The mucosa has many deep crypts of Leiberkuhn, containing abundant goblet cells and few enteroendocrine cells.

Parts of Small Intestine

1. Duodenum. The major distinguishing feature of this C-shaped first part of the small intestine is the presence of duodenal (Brunner's) glands in the submucosa. The mucous cells of these glands produce an alkaline secretion. It protects the duodenal lining from the acidity of the chyme and raises the luminal pH to the optimum level for pancreatic enzyme activity. It is also the point of entry for the bile and pancreatic ducts, which penetrate the full thickness of the duodenal wall. It typically exhibits fingerlike or leaflike villi and relatively few goblet cells.

2. Jejunum. An intraperitoneal organ, the jejunum has long leaflike vilii, many plicae circulares, and an intermediate number of goblet cells. The key to its identification, however, is that although it has villi (and is thus part of the small intestine), it contains neither Brunner's glands nor Peyer's patches.

3. Ileum. This intraperitoneal organ has fewer villi, which are short and broad-tipped (clublike), and relatively abundant goblet cells.

Small Intestine Properties

1. Villi. The presence of these epithelium-covered fingerlike mucosal projections into the lumen is the most diagnostic feature of small intestine structure. The villi increase the mucosal surface area about 10-fold and thus enhance absorption; their shape and abundance differ according to the region where they are located.
2. Intestinal glands (crypts of Lieberkuhn), These simple tubular glands (often coiled) extend into the lamina propria below the bases of the villi. They are lined by absorptive, goblet, Paneth's, enteroendocrine, and undifferentiated cells. Their secretions enter the lumen via small openings between the villi. Similar glands are seen in the large intestine, where they contain many more goblet cells.
3. Enterocytes (absorptive cells). These are the predominant cell type covering the villi. They occur in small numbers in the crypts. The approximately 3000 microvilli per cell give the cell-lumen border a striped appearance, referred to as a striated border.

4. Goblet cells. These lie between the absorptive cells, with more in the surface epithelium than in the crypts. They gradually increase in number from the duodenum to the ileum.

5. Paneth's cells. Lying in the bases of the crypts, these cells synthesize a protein polysaccharide complex. In addition to RER and Golgi complexes, they have many large acidophilic secretory granules that contain lysozyme, an antibacterial enzyme that may help control the intestinal flora.

6. Enteroendocrine cells. Most known types of enteroendocrine cells are found in the crypts of the small intestine. Those that occur mainly in this area produce hormones and amines such as secretin, which increases pancreatic and biliary bicarbonate and water secre tion; cholecystokinin, which increases pancreatic enzyme secretion and gallbladder contraction; gastric inhibitory peptide, which decreases gastric acid production; and motilin, which increases gut motility.

7. Undifferentiated cells. Mucosal epithelial cells undergo continual turnover. Replacement occurs through the mitosis of undifferentiated (stem) cells located near the base of the crypts. Products of these divisions differentiate into all the cell types described above; by a mechanism that is still unclear, they move toward the crypt base or toward the tips of the villi, from which they are finally sloughed into the lumen.

SMALL INTESTINE

The small intestine, which includes the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum, receives chyme from the stomach, bile from the liver, and digestive enzymes from the pancreas. Here, nutrients are hydrolyzed into an absorbable form; they are absorbed and transferred to blood and lymphatic capillaries. Undigested material is moved to the large intestine by peristalsis. The word small refers to diameter, not length: the small intestine is longer and narrower than the large intestine.
A. General Structure: The walls of the small intestine have the same layers as do the rest of the tract. A series of permanent folds, the plicae circulares (valves of Kerckring), composed of both submucosa and mucosa, extend into the lumen and increase the surface area about 3-fold. The main distinguishing features of the small intestine (as viewed through the microscope) are in the composition and organization of the mucosa.

B. Mucosa of the Small Intestine: This consists of simple columnar epithelium with goblet cells, underlain by a lamina propria and separated from the submucosa by a muscularis mucosae.