The Burmese python, And more generally the snakes are predators who manage to ingest even large prey, swallowing them in full. Burmese python (Python Molurus Bivittatus), originally from Southeast Asia, can even swallow a gazelle or a alligator whole! This is possible because it is equipped with a very elastic mouth And of curved teeth backwards, which favor the entrance of the Boccone. Obviously such a “heavy” meal becomes a lot difficult to digestespecially due to the presence of the bones! Recent research conducted by some scientists from the Department of Ecology and Energy Physiology of the University of Montpellier and presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology in progress in Belgium in these days, he explains how they do a also digest a skeleton. The researchers have in fact discovered a new type of specialized cells (cells of the apical crypt) never described before, in the intestinal epithelium of the Burmese python, which accumulate and regulate the high quantities of football, phosphorus and iron deriving from the digestion of the bones of the prey.
Pitons digest bones thanks to specialized intestinal cells
Thanks to a particular anatomical conformation which connects the jaw lower than the rest of the skull through elastic connective tissue, the mouth of the Burmese python can extend to one width four times higher than that of the skull e The lower jaw manages to widen also on the two sides. But how do you digest the bones of the prey?
These contain high concentrations of calcium and phosphorus which must be somehow assimilated by the python. Montpellier researchers examined the assimilation mechanism of these elements in 3 Target groups of Pitoni subjected to three different types of diet:
- a Poor football and phosphorus dietadministering previously boned food;
- a diet normal with entire full of skeleton;
- a diet football administering not only entire prey, but with Adding football carbonate Posted in the injection carcass.
They then observed the intestinal mucosa of the target groups under the optical and electronic microscope and measured i Football levels and hormones that regulate blood calcium levels (patientarous and calcitonin). The research detected the presence of a particular cell line, never previously describedpresent in the intestinal epithelium involved in the regulation of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. These cells, called “Apest crypt cells”, They have a cavity in the upper portion, such a said crypt, which can contain layers of particles of Football, phosphorus and iron excess.
When the python is a fast Or when it is fed with boned prey, the crypts are empty because the concentrations of these blood elements are normal and not in excess. When the python is powered with full skeleton or even added with calcium carbonate, in the blood these elements are excessso the crypts are filled with precipitate of calcium and phosphorus as well as iron, like small solid crystals, favoring the regulation of their blood concentrations.
The mechanism of the digestion of the python
The mechanism of digestion In snakes it has been studied for over 20 years by different groups of researchers, both to understand anatomical and physiological aspects of their intestine, and to investigate the trend of metabolic processes that allow to assimilate so abundant quantities of food.
Pitons do not perform an active hunt, but wait hidden the passage of a potential prey. This means that they can also spend several days or times too months between one meal and another. The intestine therefore goes from long periods of “quiescence” to sudden activation with the need to digest prey that can even overcome the snake’s body mass itself. During the phase inactive the stomach does not produce gastric juicesthe activity of the pancreas is firm, intestinal enzymes are inactive and intestinal epithelium seems atrophized. The mass of the heart and liver are also reduced.
However, when a prey is introduced into the large mouth, gradually suffocated and ingested, a series of transformations begins. The intact carcass begins to putrefy Inside the python and begins to produce gases that further expand the snake’s stomach. At this point the gastric mucosa begins to pump lithic enzymes and the stomach begins to produce high quantities of gastric juices in order to start digesting the prey by reducing its size. All the organs responsible for digestion, such as liver and pancreas, reactivated quickly. Only after 6-7 days from the end of digestion all organs returned to quiescence.
