Digestive / VISUAL EXPLAINER
How Can One Pancreas Send Things to Two Different Places?
Pancreatic exocrine cells release digestive products into ducts leading toward the small intestine. Endocrine islet cells release hormones toward nearby blood; a duct lumen and a blood vessel are different destinations.
READ THE IMAGE
What the illustration shows
Original English medical teaching poster titled How Can One Pancreas Send Things to Two Different Places? The left cutaway shows an acinus with wedge-shaped cells around a lumen continuous with a duct. Gold dots represent digestive proteins moving into duct fluid. The right shows a pancreatic islet containing endocrine cells beside a red-cell-filled capillary. Enlarged lower panels contrast apical release into a duct with hormone dots moving toward blood. Large summaries say exocrine output goes through ducts to the small intestine, while endocrine output enters nearby blood. Tissue dimensions, cell colors and molecular dots are schematic. Gold AllHumanBody.com branding and the full slogan appear below.
How to interpret this poster
- Cell colors are not a verified alpha/beta map or a fixed human islet arrangement.
- Molecule dots, distances and tissue proportions are schematic.
- No insulin-in-duct or enzyme-into-blood route, diabetes advice or enzyme-treatment claim.
- AI-assisted educational illustration; not physician certification, microscopy, a diagnosis or individualized medical advice.
- Fine annotations need enlargement; the full description provides an accessible text alternative.
- Display the full uncropped illustration; do not trim titles, legends or boundary annotations.
AI-assisted educational illustration, adapted into web-sized images without changing its composition. This is general education, not an individual diagnosis or treatment recommendation.
EVIDENCE / CONTEXT
Sources and what they support
- Anatomy and Physiology 2e: 17.9 The Endocrine Pancreas ↗
Main text distinguishes acinar digestive secretion from islet hormones; erroneous source-image ALT excluded.
- University of Leeds Histology Guide: Pancreas ↗
Acini/ducts versus islet capillaries.