Exam 15: Development of the Gastrointestinal Tract

A 2-year-old male infant is crying because of abdominal pain.Recently,he also began producing bloody stools.Barium enema and x-ray imaging show a bowel obstruction and intestinal ulceration in the ileum about 2 feet proximal to the ileocecal junction.What is the likely diagnosis?

What structure gives rise to the greater omentum?

What forms the definitive anorectal canal?

Clinical testing shows that a newborn has a bowel obstruction caused by a volvulus.Further assessment reveals that the infant's cecum and colon occupy the left abdominal side.Recognizing this is a congenital rotational anomaly,what patterns of gut rotation during GI development could have led to this situation?

Based on animal studies,neural crest cells forming the parasympathetic ganglia of the descending colon,sigmoid colon,and rectum originate from which levels of the axis?

Endodermal contact with the notochord during early GI development is essential for the development of what organ?

What cells serve as the progenitors of hepatocytes?

Based on hospital records,a 3-day-old newborn has not had a bowel movement.Upon re-examination,you notice the baby's abdomen appears bloated and the infant is beginning to run a fever.Soon after feeding,the baby also exhibits severe vomiting and can't keep anything down.As a physician,you request abdominal x-rays,and you find that the jejunum is drastically dilated,with the remainder of the lower small large intestines appearing smaller in diameter than expected.What is the likely cause?

With regard to cytodifferentiation of the GI glandular epithelium along the radial axis,what cell signaling interaction(s) mediate the proliferation,migration,and differentiation of cells within the glandular epithelium?

Which of these organs remains retroperitoneal throughout its development?