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peristalsis

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peristalsis

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Also known as GO:0030432, peristaltic movement

thumb|A time-space diagram of a peristaltic wave after a water swallow. High-pressure values are red, zero pressure is blue-green. The ridge in the upper part of the picture is the high pressure of the upper esophageal sphincter which only opens for a short time to let water pass.

~9 min read

Encyclopedic overview

12 sections
Contents
  • Human physiology
  • Esophagus
  • Stomach
  • Small intestine
  • Large intestine
  • Lymph
  • Sperm
  • Earthworms
  • Machinery
  • Related terms
  • References
  • External links

thumb|A time-space diagram of a peristaltic wave after a water swallow. High-pressure values are red, zero pressure is blue-green. The ridge in the upper part of the picture is the high pressure of the upper esophageal sphincter which only opens for a short time to let water pass.

Peristalsis ( , ) is a type of gut motility, characterized by radially symmetrical contraction and relaxation of muscles that propagate in a wave down a tube, in an anterograde direction. Peristalsis is progression of coordinated contraction of involuntary circular muscles, which is preceded by a simultaneous contraction of the longitudinal muscle and relaxation of the circular muscle in the lining of the gut.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “peristalsis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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