Pancreas is the second largest digestive gland in human body, and its role can be divided into two major roles: endocrine and exocrine.
1. Endocrine role: The endocrine division of the pancreas mainly secretes insulin and glucagon. Insulin can lower blood glucose, the main mechanism includes promoting glucose into the cell to be utilized or used to synthesize glycogen, also can promote the conversion of glucose into fat or protein. Glucagon can raise blood sugar through glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis.
In addition, the pancreas can also secrete growth inhibitor, gastrin, vasoactive intestinal peptide and so on.
2. Exocrine function: the pancreatic fluid secreted by the pancreas contains digestive enzymes and bicarbonate. Digestive enzymes mainly include pancreatic protease, pancreatic lipase, pancreatic amylase, pancreatic lactase, pancreatic maltase and so on, which play an important role in the process of food digestion and absorption. In addition the pancreas contains bicarbonate, which can be used to neutralize stomach acid.
For patients with pancreas-related diseases, they should immediately go to the relevant departments of regular hospitals and be treated under the guidance of specialized physicians to avoid delays.