Unit 9 Project
Anatomy and Physiology II
Fantastic Voyage. Once again my mini-sub and I will be miniaturized (8 microns long) and witnessing another ‘Fantastic Voyage’ in a human body. This time I will be swallowed by George, a 55 years old man, while he is eating his meal consisting of a hamburger, French fries and a soda. I will pilot my mini-sub through George’s GI (gastrointestinal tract), which is the tube that starts with the mouth and proceeds to the esophagus, stomach, duodenum, small intestine, large intestine (or colon), rectum and, finally, the anus (Pansky, 2007). Along this pathway I will describe the digestion of George’s meal and the major structures that I will encounter. Arrived to the distal ileum I will divert my journey in to George’s bloodstream at the Superior Mesenteric Vein. I will keep going in to the Renal Artery through the hepatic portal vein, heart and lungs and once I will arrive to the kidney I will travel through George’s urinary tract until I will be able to leave his body via the urethra. I never thought that one day I would be part of a meal and chewed up, but here I am mixed up with some bread and meat and broken down by George’s teeth. The first part of George’s meal digestion is happening right now in his oral cavity. The compound that George is chewing is a mix of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and others components. I see floats of a clear fluid mixing with this compound coming from different angles, it is George’s saliva produced by glands such as: Parotid, Submandibular and Sublingual glands (Patton & Thibodeau, 2008). This liquid contains an enzyme called amylase which is breaking the longest molecule of glucose (polysaccharide) into smaller molecules (oligosaccharides); in other words I am assisting at the first mechanical and chemical digestion where teeth and saliva are breaking down food into a small bolus. From the mouth, the bolus and I are moving down into the pharynx and then into