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esophagus, also spelled oesophagus, relatively straight muscular tube through which food passes from the pharynx to the stomach. The esophagus can contract or expand to allow for the passage of food. Anatomically, it lies behind the trachea and heart and in front of the spinal column; it passes through the muscular diaphragm before entering the stomach. Both ends of the esophagus are closed off by muscular constrictions known as sphincters; at the anterior, or upper, end is the upper esophageal sphincter, and at the distal, or lower, end is the lower esophageal sphincter.
The upper esophageal sphincter is composed of circular muscle tissue and remains closed most of the time. Food entering the pharynx relaxes this sphincter and passes through it into the esophagus; the sphincter immediately closes to prevent food from backing up. Contractions of the muscles in the esophageal wall (peristalsis) move the food down the esophageal tube. The food is pushed ahead of the peristaltic wave until it reaches the lower esophageal sphincter, which opens, allowing food to pass into the stomach, and then closes to prevent the stomach’s gastric juices and contents from entering the esophagus.
Disorders of the esophagus include ulceration and bleeding; heartburn, caused by gastric juices in the esophagus; achalasia, an inability to swallow or to pass food from the esophagus to the stomach, caused by destruction of the nerve endings in the walls of the esophagus; scleroderma, a collagen disease; and spasms of the esophageal muscles.
In some vertebrates the esophagus is not merely a tubular connection between the pharynx and the stomach but rather may serve as a storage reservoir or an ancillary digestive organ. In many birds, for example, an expanded region of the esophagus anterior to the stomach forms a thin-walled crop, which is the bird’s principal organ for the temporary storage of food. Some birds use the crop to carry food to their young. Ruminant mammals, such as the cow, are often said to have four “stomachs.” Actually, the first three of these chambers (rumen, reticulum, and omasum) are thought to be derived from the esophagus. Vast numbers of bacteria and protozoans live in the rumen and reticulum. When food enters these chambers, the microbes begin to digest and ferment it, breaking down not only protein, starch, and fats but cellulose as well. The larger, coarser material is periodically regurgitated as the cud, and after further chewing the cud is reswallowed. Slowly the products of microbial action, and some of the microbes themselves, move into the cow’s true stomach and intestine, where further digestion and absorption take place. Since the cow, like other mammals, has no cellulose-digesting enzymes of its own, it relies upon the digestive activity of these symbiotic microbes in its digestive tract. Much of the cellulose in the cow’s herbivorous diet, which otherwise would have no nutritive value, is thereby made available to the cow.
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