Biology HL

6.1 // H2
Digestion

Mouth

Oesophagus

Liver

Stomach

Gall bladder

Duodenum

Pancreas

Small intestine

Large intestine

Appendix

Anus

Fig. 1: The human digestive system

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Digestion

Digestion is required because:

• Many foods contain very large molecules that are too big to pass across cell
membranes. They need to be broken down into smaller molecules which can pass
across cell membranes.
• Many compounds in food are not suitable for human tissues, so must be broken
down and reassembled.

Enzymes lower the activation energy of the reactions they catalyse. This means that at body
temperature, the reaction proceeds more quickly. Without enzymes, metabolic reactions would
need far higher temperatures to proceed at a rate that could sustain life – these temperatures
would be unsafe and impractical to maintain.

Salivary amylase Pepsin (a protease) Pancreatic lipase

Chief cells in
Source Salivary glands Pancreas cells
stomach lining

Proteins
Substrate Starch (amylose) Lipids (triglycerides)
(polypeptides)

Glycerol and fatty

Products Maltose Amino acids
acids

Optimum pH Neutral – pH 7 Acidic – pH 3 Neutral – pH 7

Enzymes, also known as digestive juices, are secreted into the alimentary canal by glands.

These glands include salivary glands, gastric glands in the stomach wall, the pancreas and the
wall of the small intestine.

Comparison of the composition of saliva, gastric juice and pancreatic juice

Saliva Gastric juice Pancreatic juice

Solvent is water Solvent is water Solvent is water

Amylase Mucus Amylase

Mucus Hydrochloric acid Bicarbonate

Pepsin (secreted as pepsinogen) Trypsin (secreted as trypsinogen)

Lipase

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 Biology HL
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Digestion

Salivary glands secrete saliva into the mouth. Saliva contains salivary amylase. Gastric glands
are located in the inner lining of the stomach. They secrete mucus, hydrochloric acid, and
pepsinogen – the precursor of pepsin, which digests proteins. The pancreas secretes pancreatic
juice into the small intestine via a duct. This juice contains lipase, additional amylase, and a
different protease enzyme to that secreted by gastric glands. The pancreatic juice also contains
a form of hydrogen carbonate, which helps to neutralise the acidic fluids from the stomach.

An exocrine gland is a collection of cells that produce and secrete a product which is carried to
a specific location in the body through a duct. The pancreas is an example of an exocrine
gland 1. Cells that form the exocrine gland have a number of important features that can be
explained when considering the steps of protein synthesis (since many secretions from exocrine
glands are proteins:

1) mRNA is transcribed from a gene of DNA in a ribosome (often attached to endoplasmic

reticulum).
2) Synthesised proteins move through the channels of ER and reach the Golgi apparatus.
3) Golgi bodies package proteins into vesicles2.
4) Vesicles fuse with the plasma membrane to release their contents outside the cell (exocytosis /
secretion).
5) Several steps in this process require ATP.

From these steps, we can expect that exocrine gland cells should contain:
• many ribosomes.
• extensive ER.
• Many Golgi bodies.
• Often some vesicles (or granules) visible.
• Lots of mitochondria.

Exocrine gland cells are arranged into acini (Fig. 2), where the cells group around (and
effectively surround) the end of a very small duct of the pancreatic gland. The cells secrete
digestive enzymes into ductules, which merge to form larger and larger ducts, eventually
forming the pancreatic duct.

It is important to note that humans do not secrete enzymes all the time – this would be wasteful
and potentially dangerous. Instead, there are phases to gastric juice secretion:

1) Sensory stimulation (seeing and/or smelling food) initiates the secretion of gastric juice.
2) Once food has entered the stomach, receptors within the stomach wall are stimulated, and
send sensory signals to the brain. The brain responds by causing the stomach to secrete
even more gastric juice. Distension of the stomach results in the production of the hormone
gastrin. This hormone leads to the sustained release of gastric fluid, especially its
hydrochloric acid component.

1However, the pancreas can be thought of as being both an exocrine and endocrine gland (a ductless gland which
secretes a hormone into the bloodstream) since it secretes insulin and glucagon into the bloodstream.
2 Some larger vesicles are called secretory granules.
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Digestion

Secretory cell

Secretory vesicles

Wall of ductule

Lumen of ductule

To larger and larger ducts,

leading to pancreatic duct

Fig. 2: An acinus

The Digestive Tract

Oesophagus

• Brings food to stomach via a series of smooth muscle contractions called peristalsis.

Stomach

• Muscular sac of two regions – cardiac region (storage) and pyloric region (digestion) (Fig. 3).
• Churns food (mastication).
• Temporary storage of food intake.
• Secretes pepsin – a protease enzyme most active in acidic pH.
• Secretes HCl – kills bacteria, helps to degrade and break down foods and creates the
acidic pH necessary for pepsin to be active.
• Secretes mucus – lines the inside of the stomach to prevent the HCl damaging it.
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Digestion

Small intestine

• Where final stages of digestion occur.

• Liver and gall bladder secrete bile into small intestine to emulsify fats.
• Pancreas secretes enzymes such as trypsin (a protease), lipase and amylase into small
intestine. Also secretes bicarbonate.
• Intestinal wall also secretes enzymes such as maltose (some added to partially digested
fluid in lumen of small intestine; some remain attached to villi – “membrane bound”)
• Main function is to absorb digested foods.
• Contains thousands of villi to increase surface area for absorption.

Features of villi

❖ Many thousands of villi increase surface area for absorption.

❖ Epithelium is only one cell layer thick, so rate of absorption is high.
❖ Mircovilli on the villi further increase the surface area for absorption.
❖ Lots of mitochondria in epithelial cells to provide ATP (usable cell energy) for active
transport of amino acids and glucose.
❖ Lots of membrane proteins to aid transport across epithelial cells.
❖ Lacteal takes away fats after absorption.
❖ Rich supply of blood in capillary network; capillaries are very close to the epithelium so
the diffusion distance is small.
❖ Intestinal crypts (known as the Crypt of Lieberkühn) release juices that act as a carrier
fluid for nutrients (located between villi).

Cardiac sphincter

Internal ridges

Cardiac region

Pyloric region

Pyloric sphincter

Duodenum

Fig. 3: Anatomy of the stomach

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Digestion

Epithelium

Capillary bed

Lacteal

Blood from arteriole

Intestinal crypt

Blood to venule

Lymph duct

Fig. 4: Structure of an intestinal villus

1) Blood from an arteriole enters the capillary bed.

2) Digested nutrients pass from the lumen of the small intestine through the epithelium to get to
either the capillary bed or the lacteal.
3) Blood rich in nutrients leaves via a venule.

Some digestive enzymes (for example, maltase) are immobilised in the exposed plasma
membranes of epithelial cells in intestinal villi rather than being in the ‘soup’ in the lumen of the
small intestine. A maltose molecule will drift to the active site, and then the enzyme catalyses
the hydrolysis reaction. The advantages are that the maltase remains in the lumen of the small
intestine for longer than the free-floating enzymes, and the product of the reaction (two glucose
molecules) is in exactly the right place for subsequent absorption.

Humans do not produce cellulase, nor have bacteria that do produce cellulase inhabit them.
This means that much plant material – cellulose and lignin – is excreted in faces, alongside
various other things – bile pigments, intestinal cells and bacteria.

Absorption is taking nutrients from the lumen of the small intestine across epithelial cells and
into the bloodstream. Assimilation is using the nutrients to synthesise the body’s own
molecules / materials.
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Digestion

Gastric pit
(entrance to
gastric gland)

Surface
mucus cell

Mucus lining

Mucus neck
cell

Argentaffin
cell

Parietal cell

Chief cell

Secretory
vesicle /
granule

Fig. 5: A gastric gland

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Digestion

Pepsin and trypsin are two digestive protease enzymes. Proteases are the group of enzymes
that collectively hydrolyse peptide bonds in proteins. A fully active protease enzyme cannot
distinguish between ingested proteins and proteins that are part of the human body (i.e. what it
should and shouldn’t digest).

In order to prevent the hydrolysis of useful body proteins, pepsin and trypsin are initially
synthesised in a molecular form that is not chemically active. These inactive forms are known as
zymogens.

Pepsin is initially synthesised with a primary structure that includes 44 additional amino acids. In
this form, pepsin is known as pepsinogen. Pepsinogen is produced in the inner lining of the
stomach wall and remains in this zymogen form until it enters the stomach cavity. Here,
pepsinogen in exposed to hydrochloric acid, and the additional 44 amino acids are removed.
This converts pepsinogen to pepsin and the enzyme becomes active. The living inner lining
cells of the stomach are protected from the hydrochloric acid and the digestive enzymes by a
mucus lining.

Lipid digestion

• Problem when digesting lipids since they are relatively insoluble in water and the fluids
moving through the alimentary canal are aqueous.
(i.e. they are hydrophobic molecules moving through a hydrophilic medium)
• Lipid molecules tend to ‘stick together’ or coalesce, reducing their surface area relative
to their volume.
• This reduces the action of lipase, since it can only act on the outside of the lipid globule.
• Bile is therefore secreted into the alimentary canal.
• Produced by liver cells (hepatocytes)
• Stored in gall bladder.
• Added to alimentary canal via a duct that leads into the duodenum.
• Bile molecules have both a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic end, so are partially soluble
in both lipids and water.
• Bile molecules insert themselves between lipid molecules, preventing them from
coalescing and forming large globules – emulsification.
• Increases surface area : volume ratio.
• Lipase also has mixed characteristics – overall structure of lipase molecule is
hydrophilic (therefore soluble in aqueous environment) but amino acids at active site are
hydrophobic so can accept hydrophobic substrates into its hydrophobic active site.

Large intestine

• Absorption of water.
• Movement and production of faeces.
• Bacteria inhabiting large intestine synthesise vitamin B12 and K.
• Anaerobic gut bacteria metabolise otherwise indigestible polysaccharides. The bacteria
break these down releasing smaller molecules such as butyric acid which are then
absorbed by the intestinal epithelium.
• Gut microbes are important in the development and activity of the immune system,
preventing inflammatory bowel disease or Crohn’s disease.
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Digestion

Stomach ulcers

• Inflammation of the stomach lining.

• Helicobacter pylori are able to survive in the harshly acidic (~ pH 2) environment of the
stomach.
• Helicobacter pylori use the enzyme urease to produce ammonia, which can neutralise
stomach acid.
• This leads to gastritis and stomach ulcers.
• This also means that fewer other bacteria are killed.
• Patients with gastritis for many years are much more prone to stomach cancer than the
general population.

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