Combined ScienceCode 5129
Absorption and assimilation
What this topic asks you to be able to do
- State that the site of nutrient absorption is the small intestine.
- Appreciate that absorption refers to nutrients moving out of the intestines and into the cells that line the digestive system, before entering the blood.
- Appreciate that assimilation refers to cells taking in nutrients from the blood and making use of them.
- Explain why the larger internal surface area that villi give the ileum is important
- Understand that water is absorbed out of the lumen of both the colon and the small intestine, but that the small intestine takes in most of it
- State the hepatic portal vein's function: it is how most nutrients absorbed in the ileum reach the liver