AbstractsAstronomy & Space Science

Humoral and local hormonal mechanisms regulating the activity of the digestive glands.

by Frank Campbell. MacIntosh




Institution: McGill University
Department: Department of Physiology.
Degree: PhD
Year: 1937
Keywords: Physiology.; Digestive organs  – Secretions.; Gastrointestinal hormones.
Record ID: 1489062
Full text PDF: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/thesisfile132177.pdf


Abstract

The digestive glands are activated by nervous and humoral stimuli: the latter include both specific digestive hormones and active substances derivedfrom the food and absorbed into the blood; the former are now believed to act through the liberation of 'local hormones'. The significance of thesevarious stimuli is discussed in the introduction. I have investigated the mechanisms underlying certain phenomena of salivary secretion, viz.the 'augmented secretion' and the response of the 'paralytic' gland to sympathetic stimulation.These have been shown to depend not on a motor actionof the sympathetic, but on an increased irritability of the secretory cells; and the theory is advanced that this increased irritability is due toa passage of acetylcholine from the alveolar to the neighbouring demilune cells. The choline-esterase content of the cat's submaxillary gland isunaffected by degenerative section of the chorda tympani. [...]