Digestion of Carbohydrates

PROF.DR. FUNDA KOSOVA

• Why do we eat, why do we digest, and why is what we
digest absorbed?
• To obtain the energy that is the continuation of life,
• To synthesize molecules necessary for the synthesis of
structural and functional molecules,
• To polymerize monomeric precursors into
macromolecules,
• To create a coordination in which many multi-enzyme
systems work together to synthesize and break down
biochemical molecules necessary for specialized
cellular activities such as membrane lipids, intracellular
messengers and pigments.
• To store the surplus for later use
Feeder Pathways
for Glycolysis
• Many carbohydrates besides glucose
meet their catabolic fate in glycolysis,
after being transformed into one of
the glycolytic intermediates.
• The most significant are the storage
polysaccharides glycogen and starch,
either within cells (endogenous) or
obtained in the diet; the disaccharides
maltose, lactose, trehalose, and
sucrose; and the monosaccharides
fructose, mannose, and galactose.
 • Monosaccharides

• Glucose
o Found in vegetables, fruits and
honey
o "blood sugar" is used for energy

DIET DELIVERED
• Fructose
CARBOHYDRATES o “fruit candy”
o Found in fruit and honey

• Galactose
o A component of the milk sugar
lactose
• Disaccharides (two sugars linked
together)
• Sucrose: glucose + fructose
o “tea sugar”
o Made from sugar beet or cane

• Lactose: glucose + galactose

o "milk sugar"
o Found in milk and its products

• Maltose: glucose + glucose

o Found in cereals
o Decomposition product of starch
 Lactose (β formu)
β-D_galaktopiranosil-(1-4)-β-D-glukopiranoz
Gal(β1-4)Glc

sucrose
β-D-fruktofuranosil α-D-glukopironosit
Fru(β2-1α)Glc

trehalose
α-D-glukopiranosil α-D-glukopiranosit
Glc(α1-1α)Glc
 Hemiasetal

Alkol
α-D-Glukoz β-D-Glukoz
Hidroliz Kondenzasyon

Maltoz
α-D-glukopiranosil-(1-4)-D-glukopiranoz
 • Complex carbohydrates
• Starch
vChain of long glucose units
. Amylose – long chain Amylopectin
. Amylopectin – branched chain
vFound in grains and vegetables

• Glycogen
-- tightly branched glucose chain
vThe body's carbohydrate stock
vMade by animal organisms
• found in muscle and liver
 Nonreducing
end Reducing
end

(α1-4)
Amylose
Starch
– One (α 1→6) branching at 25-30 glucose
units
Meets 80% of diet-derived energy in the
world Branch
α1-6 branching
point
Amylopectin

Glycogen
Main chain
More branched than starch (every 8 to 12
residues)
Less osmotic pressure
Mobilizes easily
Dietary Fiber
• indigestible monosaccharide chains
• Vegetables, fruits, grains, ……are available
• Dietary Polysaccharides and
Disaccharides Undergo Hydrolysis
to Monosaccharides
 Decomposition of Absorption of Transport of
Hydrolysis of oligosaccharides monosaccharides monosaccharides
complex CHOs at the intestinal from the intestinal to the portal
brush border brush border blood

Monosaccharides
Starch Oligosaccharides
Monosaccharides Mucous cell Portal
Disaccharides
blood
• For most humans, starch is the major source
of carbohydrates in the diet.
 salivary 𝜶-amylase : a 1-4 endoglikosidaz

Digestion begins in the mouth, where salivary 𝛼 -amylase

hydrolyzes the internal (1→4) glycosidic linkages of starch,
producing short polysaccharide fragments or oligosaccharides.

G
G G
G
G G G G G GG a limit dextrins
G GG
G 𝛼-amylase
G
G G GGG
G G a 1-6 linkages
GG maltotriose
GG
a 1-4 linkages G
G GG
G Maltose G
G
isomaltose
 intestine
• Pancreas enzyme 𝜶-amylase
In the stomach, salivary 𝛼-amylase is inactivated by the low pH, but a second form of
𝛼-amylase, secreted by the pancreas into the small intestine, continues the breakdown
process.
maltotriose Maltose
G G G G G G G G + G G
𝜶-amylase
Amylose

G G G G G G G G
GG GG G G
GG G
Amylopectin
a limit dextrins
 α1→ 4 glycosidic linkages

Maltotriose Maltose

Amylose

α-amilaz

Amylopectin

α1→ 6 Glukoz branch points α-limit dextrins

Pancreatic 𝜶 -amylase yields mainly maltose and maltotriose (the di- and
trisaccharides of glucose) and oligosaccharides called limit dextrins, fragments of
amylopectin containing (1→6) branch points.
• Maltose and dextrins are degraded to glucose by enzymes of the intestinal brush border
(the fingerlike microvilli of intestinal epithelial cells, which greatly increase the area of
the intestinal surface).
• Dietary glycogen has essentially the same structure as starch, and its digestion proceeds
by the same pathway
Endogenous Glycogen and Starch Are Degraded
by Phosphorolysis
• Glycogen stored in animal tissues (primarily liver and skeletal muscle), in
microorganisms, or in plant tissues can be mobilized for use within the same cell by a
phosphorolytic reaction catalyzed by glycogen phosphorylase (starch phosphorylase in
plants).
• These enzymes catalyze an attack by Pi on the (1→4) glycosidic linkage that joins the last
two glucose residues at a nonreducing end, generating glucose 1-phosphate and a
polymer one glucose unit shorter.
• Phosphorolysis preserves some of the energy of
the glycosidic bond in the phosphate ester glucose
1-phosphate.
• Glycogen phosphorylase (or starch phosphorylase)
acts repetitively until it approaches an (1→6)
branch point, where its action stops.
• A debranching enzyme removes the branches.
• Glucose 1-phosphate produced by glycogen
phosphorylase is converted to glucose 6-phosphate
by phosphoglucomutase, which catalyzes the
reversible reaction
• Breakdown of dietary polysaccharides such as
glycogen and starch in the gastrointestinal tract by
phosphorolysis rather than hydrolysis would
produce no energy gain: sugar phosphates are not
transported into the cells that line the intestine,
but must first be dephosphorylated to the free
sugar
• Disaccharides must be hydrolyzed to monosaccharides before entering
cells.
• Intestinal disaccharides and dextrins are hydrolyzed by enzymes attached
to the outer surface of the intestinal epithelial cells
• The monosaccharides so formed are actively
transported into the epithelial cells, then passed
into the blood to be carried to various tissues,
where they are phosphorylated and funneled into
the glycolytic sequence.
 Decomposition of Absorption of Transport of
Hydrolysis of oligosaccharides monosaccharides monosaccharides
complex CHOs at the intestinal from the intestinal to the portal
brush border brush border blood

Monosaccharides
Starch Oligosaccharides
Monosaccharides Mucous cell Portal
Disaccharides
blood
Digestion of oligosaccharides

a-limit dextrins G
G G G
GG G sucrase
G G

maltase G
G
Glucoamylase (isomaltase)
or a-dextrinase G G G

G G a-dextrinase
GG G G
G
GG G
G
LUMEN

Lactose Isomaltose Maltose Sucrose

Cell
membrane

Blood
• Lumen

Starch à maltose + maltotriose + α-limit dextrin

α-Amylase
• Bowel brush edge

• Maltose / maltotriose à glucose

Glucoamylase (maltase)
sucrase-isomaltase

• α-limit dextrin à glucose

sucrase-isomaltase
• sucrose à glucose + fructose
sucrase-isomaltase

• Lactose à glucose + galactose

lactase
 Decomposition of Absorption of Transport of
Hydrolysis of oligosaccharides monosaccharides monosaccharides
complex CHOs at the intestinal from the intestinal to the portal
brush border brush border blood

Monosaccharides
Starch Oligosaccharides
Monosaccharides Mucous cell Portal
Disaccharides
blood
• There are several methods for monosaccharides
to pass into the portal blood.
 High High • These are energy-requiring
Active (active transport) or energy-
independent (passive
Transport transport) processes.
direction
• Active transporters can drive
substrates across the
membrane against a
concentration gradient, some
using energy provided directly
by a chemical reaction (primary
active transporters) and some
Plasma coupling uphill transport of one
membrane substrate with downhill
transport of another (secondary
active transporters).
Active
Low Transport
• The chloride-bicarbonate exchanger, also called the
anion exchange (AE) protein, increases the rate of HCO-
3 transport across the erythrocyte membrane more
than a millionfold.
• Like the glucose transporter, it is an integral protein
that probably spans the membrane at least 12 times.
• This protein mediates the simultaneous movement of
two anions: for each HCO-3 ion that moves in one
direction, one Cl ion moves in the opposite direction,
with no net transfer of charge; the exchange is
electroneutral.
• The coupling of Cl and HCO -3 movements is obligatory;
in the absence of chloride, bicarbonate transport
stops.
• In this respect, the anion
exchanger is typical of those
systems, called cotransport
systems, that
simultaneously carry two
solutes across a membrane.
When, as in this case, the
two substrates move in
opposite directions, the
process is antiport.
• In symport, two
substrates are moved
simultaneously in the same
direction.
• Transporters that carry
only one substrate, such as
the erythrocyte glucose
transporter, are known as
uniport systems.
 GluT1

• Glucose enters the erythrocyte

by facilitated diffusion via a specific
glucose transporter, at a rate about
50,000 times greater than
uncatalyzed transmembrane
diffusion.
• The glucose transporter of
erythrocytes (called GLUT1 to
distinguish it from related glucose
transporters in other tissues) is a
type III integral protein (Mr 45,000)
with 12 hydrophobic segments,
each of which is believed to form a
membrane-spanning helix.
• Model of glucose transport into erythrocytes by
GLUT1.
• The transporter exists in two conformations: T1, with
the glucose-binding site exposed on the outer surface of
the plasma membrane, and T2, with the binding site
exposed on the inner surface. Glucose transport occurs
in four steps.
• 1) Glucose in blood plasma binds to a stereospecific
site on T1; this lowers the activation energy for
• 2) a conformational change from glucose out T1 to
glucose in T2, effecting the transmembrane passage of
the glucose.
• 3) Glucose is released from T2 into the cytoplasm, and
• 4) the transporter returns to the T1 conformation,
ready to transport another glucose molecule.
• In intestinal epithelial
cells, glucose and certain
amino acids are
accumulated by symport
with Na, down the Na
gradient established by
the NaK ATPase of the
plasma membrane.
• The apical surface of the
intestinal epithelial cell is
covered with microvilli,
long thin projections of
the plasma membrane
that greatly increase the
surface area exposed to
the intestinal contents.
• Na-glucose symporters in the
apical plasma membrane take up
glucose from the intestine in a
process driven by the downhill
flow of Na:
• Glucose transport in intestinal
epithelial cells.
• Glucose is cotransported with Na
across the apical plasma
membrane into the epithelial cell.
It moves through the cell to the
basal surface, where it passes into
the blood via GLUT2, a passive
glucose uniporter.
• The NaK ATPase continues to
pump Na outward to maintain the
Na gradient that drives glucose
uptake.