What is the difference between liver and pancreas

The liver is connected to the abdominal wall and diaphragm by five peritoneal folds referred to as ligaments. These are the falciform ligament, the coronary ligament, two lateral ligaments, and the ligamentum teres hepatis. The falciform ligament and ligamentum teres hepatis are actually remnants of the umbilical vein, and separate the right and left lobes anteriorly. The lesser omentum tethers the liver to the lesser curvature of the stomach.

These two vessels, along with the common hepatic duct, run behind the lateral border of the lesser omentum on the way to their destinations. As shown in, the hepatic artery delivers oxygenated blood from the heart to the liver.

The hepatic portal vein delivers partially deoxygenated blood containing nutrients absorbed from the small intestine and actually supplies more oxygen to the liver than do the much smaller hepatic arteries. In addition to nutrients, drugs and toxins are also absorbed. After processing the bloodborne nutrients and toxins, the liver releases nutrients needed by other cells back into the blood, which drains into the central vein and then through the hepatic vein to the inferior vena cava.

With this hepatic portal circulation, all blood from the alimentary canal passes through the liver. This largely explains why the liver is the most common site for the metastasis of cancers that originate in the alimentary canal.

Figure 2. The liver receives oxygenated blood from the hepatic artery and nutrient-rich deoxygenated blood from the hepatic portal vein. The liver has three main components: hepatocytes, bile canaliculi, and hepatic sinusoids.

These cells play a role in a wide variety of secretory, metabolic, and endocrine functions. Plates of hepatocytes called hepatic laminae radiate outward from the portal vein in each hepatic lobule.

These small ducts accumulate the bile produced by hepatocytes. From here, bile flows first into bile ductules and then into bile ducts. The bile ducts unite to form the larger right and left hepatic ducts, which themselves merge and exit the liver as the common hepatic duct.

This duct then joins with the cystic duct from the gallbladder, forming the common bile duct through which bile flows into the small intestine. A hepatic sinusoid is an open, porous blood space formed by fenestrated capillaries from nutrient-rich hepatic portal veins and oxygen-rich hepatic arteries. Hepatocytes are tightly packed around the fenestrated endothelium of these spaces, giving them easy access to the blood. From their central position, hepatocytes process the nutrients, toxins, and waste materials carried by the blood.

Materials such as bilirubin are processed and excreted into the bile canaliculi. Other materials including proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates are processed and secreted into the sinusoids or just stored in the cells until called upon. The hepatic sinusoids combine and send blood to a central vein. Blood then flows through a hepatic vein into the inferior vena cava. This means that blood and bile flow in opposite directions.

The hepatic sinusoids also contain star-shaped reticuloendothelial cells Kupffer cells , phagocytes that remove dead red and white blood cells, bacteria, and other foreign material that enter the sinusoids. The portal triad is a distinctive arrangement around the perimeter of hepatic lobules, consisting of three basic structures: a bile duct, a hepatic artery branch, and a hepatic portal vein branch. Recall that lipids are hydrophobic, that is, they do not dissolve in water.

Thus, before they can be digested in the watery environment of the small intestine, large lipid globules must be broken down into smaller lipid globules, a process called emulsification. Bile is a mixture secreted by the liver to accomplish the emulsification of lipids in the small intestine. Hepatocytes secrete about one liter of bile each day. A yellow-brown or yellow-green alkaline solution pH 7. The components most critical to emulsification are bile salts and phospholipids, which have a nonpolar hydrophobic region as well as a polar hydrophilic region.

The hydrophobic region interacts with the large lipid molecules, whereas the hydrophilic region interacts with the watery chyme in the intestine. This change dramatically increases the surface area available for lipid-digesting enzyme activity. This is the same way dish soap works on fats mixed with water. Bile salts act as emulsifying agents, so they are also important for the absorption of digested lipids. While most constituents of bile are eliminated in feces, bile salts are reclaimed by the enterohepatic circulation.

The pancreatic juices are made in the acinar tissues, and passed by secretion into the tubes ducts for transport into the duodenum.

The exit hole into the duodenum is called the papilla of Vater. The biliary juices bile are made in the tissues of the liver hepatic parenchyma , and then pass into the biliary ductal system picture. Like a river, these ducts gradually join together to form one stream in the main bile duct, which exits along with the pancreatic duct into the duodenum at the "papilla of Vater. The anatomy design of the biliary and pancreatic ducts is not the same in every person.

Variations can be important; some can cause medical problems, others may make treatment more difficult or complicated. The main papilla of Vater is a small nipple-like structure on the wall of the duodenum, in its "second part. The papilla forms the main exit hole for the bile and pancreatic juices which flow down the bile duct and pancreatic duct.

Rarely there are two separate holes close together within the same papillary nipple. The papilla remains closed at rest, because of the activity of a muscular valve sphincter. The sphincter of Oddi surrounds the exit of the bile duct and pancreatic duct. It opens by reflex action when foods enter the stomach, so that juices can be released to help in their digestion.

This is the exit hole for Santorini's duct. The minor papilla occasionally acts as a useful safety valve when the main papilla is not able to function correctly, but becomes the main site of drainage for pancreatic juices in the congenital variant called pancreas divisum. The bile duct biliary system provides the channels through which bile is transported from the liver to the duodenum through the papilla of Vater.

The liver is found in the right upper corner of the abdomen, immediately below the diaphragm. In health it weighs pounds. It is divided into right and left lobes, and each of these have several segments.

The bile ducts start as tiny tubes called sinusoids which lie between rows of liver cells called hepatocytes. These liver cells make bile, and pass it into the tiny canals cannaliculi. The small ducts join together like branches to form the main biliary tree, with one trunk which is formed just outside the surface of the liver. This is called the common hepatic duct. The gallbladder is a collection sac for bile, which enters and leaves through a narrow tube called the cystic duct.

The gallbladder is about the size of an egg when full. The bile duct below the cystic duct is usually called the common bile duct. The common bile duct and the common hepatic duct together constitute the main bile duct. The lower end of the bile duct sweeps around behind the duodenum and through the head of the pancreas before joining the pancreatic duct at the main papilla of Vater. There is a main pancreatic duct which collects juices from all the branches of the pancreatic stream, and exits at the main papilla of Vater.

The pattern of these branches varies considerably, but this does not matter. This normal arrangement comes about as a result of complex reorganization during fetal development. Early in the development of the embryo, the pancreas is in two parts dorsal and ventral elements. These parts usually join together to form one pancreas between six and eight weeks of pregnancy.

Even after joining, the santorini stays open or "patent," and drains into the minor papilla in over half of patients. Thus, the patient who develops a problem at the main papilla like a stone or tumor may not develop any symptoms of pancreatic obstruction if Santorini's duct and the minor papilla are open, and can take over the drainage function. For example, it:. The pancreas is located below the stomach. It produces a mix of enzymes that together are called pancreatic juice.

This juice helps neutralize the very acidic chyme when it enters the small intestine. Pancreatic juice also helps us to digest proteins , fats and carbohydrates. The gall bladder is a pouch-shaped organ that stores the bile produced by the liver.

The gall bladder shares a vessel, called the common bile duct, with the liver.