List the exact order of flow of bile and pancreatic juice as it flows out of the Liver, Pancreas, and the Gallbladder. List All ducts and any sphincters.

Answer 1

Let's start with bile! Bile is produced in liver cells and is composed of salts, cholesterol, bilirubin, and water. There are small bile ducts within the liver that it flows through initially before entering the right or left hepatic duct which eventually form the common hepatic duct which exits the liver. The common hepatic duct has another tube branching off of it called the cystic duct which leads to the gallbladder. Some bile instead of flowing directly to the small intestine through the common hepatic duct, flows into the gallbladder instead where it is stored for the future. This stored gallbladder bile is released when the gallbladder is stimulated to contract by hormone cholecystokinin (CCK). The common bile duct mmets the sphincter of common bile duct (Boyden) before it eventually joins the pancreatic duct and both of these together empty into the duodenum through the major duodenal paillae which is surrounded by the sphincter of Oddi. When this sphincter relaxes, both bile and pancreatic juices flow into the duodenum/small intestine.

Now let's talk about the pancreas! The pancreas sits behind the stomach and also produces fluids that promote digestion. This pancreatic fluid has is collected in similar small ducts within the pancreas and this eventually becomes a larger duct known as the main pancreatic duct. The pancreatic duct passes through the sphincter of the main pancreatic duct before it leads to an opening in the duodenum called the duodenal papillae which we talked about before.