Physiology of carbohydrate and protein absorption Flashcards
What are the main constituents of food?
Carbohydrates, lipids and protein
What are the carbohydrates?
Starch - amylose and amylopectin
Celluose
Glycogen
Disaccharides (sucorse and lactose)
Which carbohydrate is indigestible in humans?
Cellulose
What are the lipids?
Triacylglycerols Phospholipids Cholesterol and cholesterol esters Free fatty acids Lipid vitamins
What are the sources of proteins?
Ingest protein and from within the body
Where does the protein from within the body come from?
Cells shed, go into the lumen of the digestive tract and are digested
What is the definition of digestion?
Enzymatic conversion of complex dietary substances to a form that can be absorbed
What are the two overall process that digestion can be broken down into?
Luminal digestion and membrane digestion
What is luminal digestion?
The first stage of digestion. Mediated by pancreatic enzymes secreted into the duodenum
What is membrane digestion?
The products of luminal digestion are passed to the enzymes embedded int he apical membrane of the enterocytes. Mediated by enzymes situated at the brush border of epithelial cells
What is absorption?
The process by which the absorbable products of digestion are transferred across the apical and basolateral membranes of enterocytes
What are enterocytes?
Absorptive cells of the intestinal epithlium
What are the two general stages of absorption?
Digestive products must leave the lumen and enter the enterocytes (cross apical membrane)
Then they must exit the enterocyte and enter the bloodstream (cross the basolateral membrane)
What is the name for the overall process of digestion and absorption?
Assmiliation
What kind junctions are between enterocytes?
Tight junctions
What dietary component is so simple that is does not require digestion?
Monosaccharide glucose
By what type of digestion is protein broken down to enter the epithelium?
Luminal hydrolysis of polymer to monomers
Protein –> amino acids
By what type of digestion are disaccharides broken down to enter the epithelium?
Brushborder hydrolysis of oligomer to monomer disaccharide –> monosaccharides
What is an example of intracellular hydrolysis?
Short chain peptides not being broken down into amino acids until in the epithelium (pass from the lumen to the epithelium has whole peptides)
What is an example of luminal hydrolysis followed by intracellular resynthesis?
Triglycerides –> fatty acids + glycerol to enter the epithelium
Within the epithelium fatty acids + glycerol –> triglycerol which enters the interstitial space
What are the 3 different types of carbohydrate?
Polysaccharides
Oligosaccharides
Monosaccharides
What are the plant and animal polymers of glucose (polysaccharides)?
Starch (plant) and glycogen (animal)
What are the two different types of starch?
Amylose and amylopectin
What is the structure of amylose
Chain of a-glucose molecules
Joint by a-1,4-glycosidic bonds
What is the structure of amylopectin?
Branched structure
a-1,4-glycosidic bonds
Branches are connected by a-1,6-glycosidic bonds
What are two oligosaccharides?
Sucrose and lactose
What is sucrose composed of and what are the bonds?
Glucose and fructose
a-1,2 linkages
What is lactose composed of and what are the bonds?
Glucose and galactose
B-1,4 linkages
Give two examples of monosaccharides?
Glucose and fructose
What are the 3 different types of carbohydrate/
Polysaccharides
Oligosaccharides
Monosaccharides
What are the plant and animal polymers of glucose (polysaccharides)?
Starch (plant) and glycogen (animal)
What are the two different types of starch?
Amylose and amylopectin
What enzymes break down oligosaccharidases in the brush border)
Lactase
Maltase
Sucrase -isomaltase (2 enzymes linked together)