Pancreas

The pancreas sits just under the duodenum proximally in the duomesentery. It is V shaped with the point of the V facing more cranially. The point is called the head and the two ends of the V are called the tails. The pancreas is a part of the endocrine system. It is both an endocrine and an exocrine gland which secretes two hormones with specialized cells called the islets of langerhans.

Hormones: Insulin- transports blood glucose into body cells or into storage (lowers blood sugar) Glucagon- increases blood glucose

The pancreas is also a digestive exocrine gland by secreting enzymes to aid in digestion, such as sodium bicarbonate, amylase, lipase, and protease through the pancreatic duct into the stomach.

In this picture below the finger pointing from the top of the picture is touching the duodenum and just under that the pancreas is sitting along the entire duodenum. Notice where the duodenum makes a U shape towards the right of the picture. This is where the head of the pancreas is located. The end of the pancreas on the left of the picture is the right tail end.

In this picture below the cartoon clearly shows the pancreas; it is labeled 2