16.

0 Introduction

Every organism needs a continuous supply of metabolites for growth

and energy to function normally in life. Most organisms get both
metabolites and energy from the food they consume.

Food is the first requisition of the process of nutrition. It is essential for

several purposes :

1. It provides metabolites or building material for the body of an

organism.
2. It constitutes a source of energy for the organism.
3. It also helps in the normal functioning and well balanced growth
of the body.
4. It compensates for the wear and tear of the body.

The process in which food is obtained, prepared, absorbed and

converted into body substances, is called nutrition. It is the main life-
sustaining process in an organism: it provides the raw materials for the
maintenance of life.

Nutrition in animals occurs in five phases namely (i) feeding or

ingestion, (ii) digestion

(iii) absorption and (iv) assimilation.

i. Ingestion is the process of taking in food.

ii. Digestion is the process of breaking up complex substances
into simpler substances.
iii. Absorption is concerned with diffusion of digested food into
blood and lymph.
iv. Assimilation is the conversion or incorporation of absorbed
simple food into the complex substances constituting the body.
v. Egestion is the elimination of undigested food from the body.
Diversity in animal nutrition

Even though the basic requirement for nutrition is the same for all
higher animals, there is diversity in mechanisms for intake of food. On
the basis of how they obtain nutrition, living organisms are classified
into two main types :

Sun

i. Autotrophic,which prepare their own food. These include

photosynthetic and chemosynthetic bacteria and photosynthetic
plants.
ii. Heterotrophic, which require prepared organic substances as
their food. All animals fall in this category. They depend on
plants or other animals for nutrition. This category may be
further subdivided into the as following groups:

a) Holozoic, in which animals take in their food in solid and a non-

diffusible form. Those which feed on plants are called herbivores, like
rabbit, cow etc., and those which feed on other animals are called
carnivores. The carnivores like lions and tigers which hunt their prey
alive are called predators, while animals like vultures which feed on
the dead animals are known as scavengers. Other groups of animals
like cats, dogs, humans, etc. which feed both on plants as well as
animals are called omnivores.

Food Herbivores Carnivores Omnivores Parasites

Producers
 Figure. 16.2 Diverse nutritional types

b) Parasites are those animals that live in or on the body of another

animal called host and obtain prepared food from the host.

6.2 Organs of digestion and physiology of digestion

In higher organisms the organs of digestion include the alimentary

canal and digestive glands. The alimentary canal serves as a passage
for food while the digestive glands secrete the enzymes which help in
the process of digestion. As the complex food passes through the
alimentary canal the following things occur:

(i) Carbohydrates are broken down and converted into glucose.

(ii) Proteins are converted into amino acids, and

(iii) Fats are converted into fatty acids and glycerol.

Human Digestive System

The human digestive system consists of the two parts :

(1) Alimentary canal and (2) Associated glands.

(1) Alimentary canal

It is a muscular and glandular tube in which food is passed forward by

peristalsis. It is a sort of fuel refinery. Food provides crude fuel to this
refinery while the glands supply fluids and enzymes to break down the
fuel. The system often works steadily and automatically, except
sometimes under protest, in the form of constipation, diarrhea, ulcers
etc.

a. Mouth and mouth cavity : The mouth is the anterior opening

guarded by a pair of fleshy lips, leading into mouth cavity
bounded by the upper and lower jaws bearing 32 teeth in an
average adult. It is bound by cheeks on two sides, the hard and
soft palate as the roof and tongue on the floor. The teeth are of
four types, (i) incisors or cutting teeth, (ii) canines which are the
 tearing teeth and (iii) premolars and (iv) molars that are the
grinding teeth.

b) Pharynx: It is short but wide space which serves as a common

passage for food and air. The air passage is guarded by a movable flap
called the epiglottis, while the soft palate closes the way to the nasal
passage.

c) Esophagus: It is a tube about 25 cm in length, extending from the

pharynx to the stomach. Food passes by the peristalsis.

d) Stomach: It is a wide muscular bag placed transversely just below

the diaphragm. It is divisible into cardiac, fundic and pyloric regions.
It is provided with the anterior cardiac sphincter and the posterior
pyloric sphincter, muscles which constrict highly to control
movement of food into and out of the stomach.

e) Small intestine: It is a tube of about 7 meters in length, divisible

into an anterior part called the duodenum, the middle part called
jejunum and posterior part known as the ileum. The duodenum is a C-
shaped structure. The liver and pancreas release their digestive jucies
into this.

f) Large intestine: It is a short tube about 1.5 meters long. It is

divisible into the anterior colon and the posterior part called rectum.
The colon is differentiated into ascending, transverse, descending and
sigmoid parts. At the junction of the ileum and colon, there is a blind
pouch called the caecum ending into a small projection called the
appendix. The rectum is the terminal part, about 12 cm long and
opening outside as the anus. This is surrounded by the voluntary anal
sphincter to control defecation.

(2) Associated glands : Apart from the gastric and intestinal glands
embedded in the walls of the stomach and intestine, there are glands
like salivary glands, liver and pancreas which pour their secretions into
the alimentary canal.

(a) Salivary glands : There are three pairs of salivary glands, namely, sub-lingual, sub-
maxillary and parotids opening into the mouth cavity as shown in Figure 16.7. They
secrete saliva while food is being chewed in the mouth cavity.
(b) Liver : It is the largest gland in the body, situated in contact with the stomach. The
human liver is imperfectly bilobed. Between the lobes lies a green sac-like structure
called the gall bladder which stores the secretion of liver (called bile). The hepatic duct
from the liver lobes and the cystic duct from the gall bladder join to form the common
bile duct.

(c) Pancreas : It is an elongated lobulated gland situated in the loop of the duodenum.
The pancreatic duct joins the common bile duct and opens into the duodenum.

Histology of the digestive system

The wall of the alimentary canal is made up of concentric layers of serosa, (outermost),
muscularis, sub-mucosa and mucosa, (innermost). According to the function of the part,
they are modified as described below:

Histology of stomach: A transverse section of stomach shows four concentric layers as

described below :

i) Serosa : It is the outermost single layer of cells.

(ii) Muscularis : It is comparatively thick and distinguished into outer layer of

longitudinal muscles, middle thick layer of circular muscles and inner layer of oblique
muscles.

(iii) Sub-mucosa : It is a spongy layer situated between the mucosa and muscularis. It
contains blood vessels and nerve endings. Between the sub-mucosa and mucosa, there is
a distinct layer of muscularis mucosa.

iv) Mucosa: It is the innermost layer which is comparatively thick and

secretory in function. The epithelial lining is sunken to form y-shaped
gastric pits into which the compound gastric glands open. Each
gastric gland is a compound tubular gland differentiated into the basal
glandular part and a short narrow neck opening into the gastric pit.
The glandular part consists mainly of three types of cells, the central or
chief cells or zymogen cells which secrete pepsinogen, the parietal
or oxyntic cells that secrete hydrochloric acid, and the cells that
secrete mucus. The gastric glands of the fundus part are well
developed and secrete enzymes, while those of the cardiac and pyloric
stomach are short with long ducts and secrete mucus.

Histology of the intestine : The wall of the intestine shows the

following four layers (going from outside towards the inner side). (Fig.
16.11)

(i) Serosa is made up of a single outer layer of flat epithelial cells.

(ii) Muscularis is comparatively thin and made up of two layers of

smooth muscle fibers, the outer longitudinal and the inner circular
layers.

(iii) Sub-mucosa. It extends internally into circular folds to increase

the area of absorption. It is made up of loose connective tissue, blood
capillaries, lymphatic vessels and nerves.

(iv) The mucosa is the innermost lining made up of the columnar

epithelial cells that have minute finger-shaped projections called villi.
The core of each villus is made up of a connective tissue tunica propria
containing blood capillaries and lymph vessels. The epithelial cells of
the mucosa (except for the goblet cells) show a striated border of
numerous microvilli. At intervals between the villi are seen two types
of glands, the crypts of Lieberkuhn and the Brunner’s glands,
respectively. Thus the internal surface area of the intestine is greatly
increased due to muscular folds, villi and microvilli, which are essential
for absorption.

The crypts of Lieberkuhn are the simple tubular glands which

extend into the tunica propria as far as the indistinct muscularis
mucosa. They secrete digestive enzymes.

The Brunner’s glands are large bunches of grape-like structures,

extending even into the sub-mucosa. They secrete an alkaline watery
fluid containing mucin and some enzymes. These glands are restricted
only to the duodenum. The secretion of crypts and Brunner’s glands
constitutes the intestinal juice or saccus entericus.

Besides these glands, the lymphoid tissue is also widely distributed

throughout the mucosa of the small intestine as the lymph nodules.
In the ileum the nodules are gathered in groups forming Payer’s
patches.
eHistology of liver : It is the largest gland externally covered by a
thin membrane called Glisson’s capsule which extends into the
substance of the liver, dividing it into a number of hepatic lobules.

Figure 16.12 Various views of liver. (A) Hepatic lobule

(diagrammatic)
(B) Hepatic lobule (magnified) (C) Sinusoid

Each hepatic lobule is a hexagonal or prismatic structure covered by a thin membrane,

the part of Glisson’s capsule, and the connective tissue enclosing the arteriole, venule and
tributaries or the hepatic portal vein. In the center of each lobule is seen a canal called
the intra-lobular canal or tributary of the hepatic vein. The substance of a lobule is
made up of many radially arranged branched, plate-like structures called hepatic cords.
Each hepatic cord is usually made up of two rows of hepatic cells. In between the hepatic
cells of each cord is seen the bile canaliculus in which bile flows from adjoining cells.
Similarly in between the cords are seen blood canaliculi and sinusoids. The flow of bile
is from the center to the periphery while that of blood is from periphery towards the
center. The sinusoids are lined by incomplete endothelial cells called Kupffer’s cells.
These cells are amoeboid and phagocytic in their functioning. They also engulf dead and
worn out red blood cells.

The hepatic cells are polygonal, each with a distinct centrally placed
spherical nucleus and granular cytoplasm. The cytoplasm is rich in
granules of glycogen, fat droplets and pigment granules.

Histology of pancreas: Pancreas is composed of a large aggregation

of alveoli with ducts hence it is sometimes called the tubuo-alveolar
gland. When observed in a transverse section, these alveoli appear as
vesicles, the shape of which varies according to the plane of the
section. The alveoli and their ducts are joined by a thin connective
tissue, blood capillaries and nerve fibers. The pancreas is essentially
made up of two parts, the non-endocrine or exocrine, and the
endocrine portions.

The exocrine part of the pancreas consists of numerous pancreatic

secretory components known as alveoli or acini. Each acinus consists
of a number of pyramidal or conical secretory cells surrounding a
central lumen. The secretory cells of the acini contain distinct nuclei,
mitochondria, and ribosomes generally situated towards the base, and
zymogen or secretory granules aggregated towards the lumen along
with the Golgi complex. The nucleoli are conspicuously seen in the
nuclei. The acini secrete pancreatic juice.

The endocrine part consists of chords of loosely arranged cells seen

as isolated masses of cells in a transverse section surrounded by a
large number of blood capillaries. These are known as the "Islets of
Langerhans". The islets include three types of cells, namely alpha
(α ) , beta (β ) and delta (δ ) cells. The d-islet cells secrete the hormone
glucagon which increases the blood sugar level while islet cells
secrete the hormone insulin which decreases blood sugar level by
triggering cells to absorb glucose. Thus, an antagonistic effect of these
two hormones controls sugar metabolism. The exact function of cells,
however is not yet known.