Pancreas
glandular organ that plays a role in the digestive and endocrine systems of vertebrates
The pancreas (plural pancreases, or pancreata) is an organ of the digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a gland. The pancreas is a mixed or heterocrine gland, i.e., it has both an endocrine and a digestive exocrine function. Ninety-nine percent of the pancreas is exocrine and one percent is endocrine. As an endocrine gland, it functions mostly to regulate blood sugar levels, secreting the hormones insulin, glucagon, somatostatin and pancreatic polypeptide. As a part of the digestive system, it functions as an exocrine gland secreting pancreatic juice into the duodenum through the pancreatic duct. This juice contains bicarbonate, which neutralizes acid entering the duodenum from the stomach, and digestive enzymes which break down carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in food entering the duodenum from the stomach.
Inflammation of the pancreas is known as pancreatitis; common causes include chronic alcohol use and gallstones. Because of its role in the regulation of blood sugar, the pancreas is also a key organ in diabetes. Pancreatic cancer can arise following chronic pancreatitis or due to other reasons, and it carries a very poor prognosis, as it is often identified only after it has spread to other areas of the body.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pancreas” is glandular organ that plays a role in the digestive and endocrine systems of vertebrates. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pancreas, glandular and organ, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q9618. The Library of Congress control number is sh85097370. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pancreas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.