Anatomy and Physiology Terms

A short transition zone rather than a clean border, and the site of both the commonest digestive complaint and a fast rising cancer.

Roots pointing at stomach and intestine, yet the label in practice stretches from mouth to anus and turns up throughout medical records.

Two jobs that have little in common are grouped as one system because the organs doing them grow from the same embryonic tissue.

The tissue of the upper and lower jaws that surrounds the base of the teeth.

A gland is an organ built to produce and release substances such as hormones, sweat, or digestive fluid for use elsewhere in the body.

Every cell in the body runs it, it needs no oxygen, and for a red blood cell it is the only source of energy available.

The part of the reproductive system that produces and releases eggs (ovary) or sperm (testicle/testis).

The gums are the firm tissue covering the jawbones and surrounding the base of the teeth, clinically termed the gingiva.

Every red cell, white cell and platelet traces back to one kind of stem cell, replaced constantly because none of them last.

The vein that carries everything absorbed from the gut straight to the liver before the rest of the body sees it.

A hepatocyte is the main parenchymal cell of the liver and carries out many of the organ’s metabolic, synthetic, and detoxifying functions.

The maintenance of stable internal conditions within a living system.

The last stretch of throat, where the paths of air and food finally part company and where cancer is often found late.

The pituitary is called the master gland, yet it takes its orders from the structure sitting directly above it.

As a modifier the word says little on its own; what matters is which segment of intestine a finding actually involves.

Resident microbes in their trillions, doing chemical work the human body never evolved the enzymes to do for itself.

Packed into the abdomen in coils, the intestine offers a surface area for absorption far larger than its outward size suggests.

Intracellular means located, occurring, or functioning inside a cell.

Intrahepatic means located or occurring within the liver.

Intraocular means located, occurring, or placed within the eyeball.