In what organ does the urea cycle take place?

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Accepted Answer

Hi, everyone. Let's look at the next question in which the following organs, does the urea cycle occur? A stomach b, liver c pancreas or d small intestine? Well, this question would be a little trickier perhaps if we've been offered the choice of kidney because we often connect kidney and urea, but the kidney is where urea is eliminated from the body. So which of these is where this urea cycle occurs? Well, let's recall it. The urea cycle is a cycle by which ammonia in the body, excuse me, nitrogen in the body, mostly in the form of ammonia is converted into urea and then once converted into urea. As we mentioned, it will be excreted by the kidneys. And why is this done? This is because ammonia is toxic. So this is a way of processing a toxic chemical into a harmless form that can be eliminated. So when we think about the organ that does the bulk of the work when it comes to eliminating toxins, that would be choice b the liver. So I just put my liver deals with toxins. So we kind of think of that as its function, um that will help us remember that. So why? But aside from that, why is it that the liver is the logical place for this to occur? Well, the liver is where amino acid metabolism is located. And of course, amino acids are going to be sort of the, you know, most abundant nitrogen containing compounds in our body. So it makes sense that the liver would be the place where you would deal with this nitrogen. And then in addition, the liver receives blood from the intestines in helping deal with any toxins we might have ingested. And so it's a great place to deal with all the nitrogen. That's a result of the digestion of proteins as they are broken down into amino acids. And then finally, though presumably, if you knew this, you wouldn't have trouble with this question. The liver contains the enzymes needed for the urea cycle. So when we look at our other answer choices, the stomach is where proteins are digested and broken down. But that's not where the urea cycle takes place. So I see the pancreas produces digestive enzymes that will break down the proteins. But again, not the uh location of the urea cycle. And then choice d the small intestine where nutrients are absorbed from the food that's been digested, but again, not the location of the urea cycle. So the organ where the urea cycle occurs is choice B the liver. See you see you in the next video

In what organ does the urea cycle take place?

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Key Concepts

Urea Cycle

Liver Function

Nitrogen Excretion