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The pancreas is an organ of the digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a gland. The pancreas is a mixed or heterocrine gland, i.e., it has both an endocrine and a digestive exocrine function. [2] 99% of the pancreas is exocrine and 1% is endocrine.
There are about 1 million islets distributed throughout the pancreas of a healthy adult human. While islets vary in size, the average diameter is about 0.2 mm. [5]:928 Each islet is separated from the surrounding pancreatic tissue by a thin, fibrous, connective tissue capsule which is continuous with the fibrous connective tissue that is interwoven throughout the rest of the pancreas.
There are several organs and other components involved in the digestion of food. The organs known as the accessory digestive organs are the liver, gall bladder and pancreas. Other components include the mouth, salivary glands, tongue, teeth and epiglottis. The largest structure of the digestive system is the gastrointestinal tract (GI tract).
The pancreas arises as two separate bodies, the dorsal pancreas and the ventral pancreas. The dorsal pancreas appears first, at around day 26, opposite the developing hepatic duct, and grows into the dorsal mesentery. The ventral pancreas develops at the junction of the hepatic duct and the rest of the foregut.
The pancreas serves multiple roles within mammalian organisms. It plays a role in the digestive system and the endocrine system making it an organ and a very important gland. [2] PP cells tend to located in the pancreatic islets, and are one of the rarer pancreatic cell types. [1] Some small clusters may also be found surrounded by exocrine ...
Research has shown that beta cells can be differentiated from human pancreas progenitor cells. [37] These differentiated beta cells, however, often lack much of the structure and markers that beta cells need to perform their necessary functions. [37]
The pancreatic duct or duct of Wirsung (also, the major pancreatic duct due to the existence of an accessory pancreatic duct) is a duct joining the pancreas to the common bile duct. This supplies it with pancreatic juice from the exocrine pancreas, which aids in digestion.
The pancreas is controlled by both the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system, although the method these two systems use to control the pancreas appears to be different. [8] Sympathetic control of the pancreas appears to originate from the sympathetic preganglionic fibers in the lower thoracic and lumbar spinal cord. [9]