Small Intestine

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The small intestine plays a key role in digestion and absorption of nutrients. Recent literature reveals that the function of the small intestine is much more complex. The bowel (multicellular organ) is composed of absorptive enterocytes, and other cells viz. secretory, immune and neuroendocrine cells that perform a number of essential physiological functions including secretion of hormones (Petras, 2012). There are three subdivisions in the small intestine viz. duodenum (approx. 25 cm), jejunum (approx. 260 cm) and ileum (approx. 395 cm). The duodenum receives the chime (processed food) that just got processed in the stomach and is the part of the GI tract where the most digestion happens. The jejunum is the part of the entire GI tract where the most absorption of nutrients occurs (McCauley, Kong et al. 1999). Last part of the GI tract is the ileum wherein there is some important absorption of nutrients that takes place e.g. absorption of Vitamins etc. The busiest part of the small intestine is the duodenum because there are bunch of things that are involved in …show more content…

Glutamine enters from the blood stream into the mitochondria for energy production. Metabolism of this amino acid in the small intestine is initiated by the conversion into glutamate and ammonia catalyzed phosphate-dependent glutaminase (PDG). The glutamate produced then leaves the mitochondria into the cytoplasm where it is converted into α-ketoglutarate primarily via transamination reactions. Alanine and aspartate are produced via the transamination reactions catalyzed by alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase, respectively as illustrated in this pathway. The α-ketoglutarate then enters the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle where it is reduced, then co-enzymes (NADH and FADH2) are produced. The co-enzymes are used in the electron transport chain by the mitochondria to synthesize ATP (Blachier,