Nangarhar University

Faculty of Veterinary Science

Department of Pre-clinic
Veterinary Biochemistry

Digestion and Absorption of Lipids

Prepared by: Fazal Akbar Khalili

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 Digestion and Absorption of Lipids
• Diet contains triglycerides, cholesterol and its ester, phospholipids, fatty acids etc.
• Lipid digestion start in the mouth. Chewing mechanically breaks food into smaller particles and mixes them
with saliva.
• An enzyme called lingual lipase is produced by cells on the tongue (“lingual” means relating to the tongue)
and begins some enzymatic digestion of triglycerides, cleaving individual fatty acids from the glycerol
backbone.
• Cells in the stomach produce another lipase, called gastric lipase (“gastric” means relating to the stomach)
that also contributes to enzymatic digestion of triglycerides. Lingual lipase swallowed with food and saliva
also remains active in the stomach.

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 Digestion and Absorption of Lipids
• These two enzymes can hydrolyze fats without emulsification with bile salts.
• But together, these two lipases play only a minor role in fat digestion, and most
enzymatic digestion happens in the small intestine.
• Major part of fats are digested by pancreatic lipase. It acts on emulsified lipids only.
The products are monoglyceride and 2 fatty acids. Monoglyceride is further
hydrolyzed by another lipase.
• Thus 3 fatty acids and one glycerol molecule is produced from the digestion of dietary
triglyceride

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 Digestion and Absorption of Lipids

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 Digestion and Absorption of Lipids

• Phospholipids are digested by

phospholipases, secreted by pancreas and
intestines.
• They are four in number, A (A1, A2) B,
C, and D. The action of these enzymes
are shown in figure (4.5).

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 Digestion and Absorption of Lipids
• The products of Phospholipase A1 or A2 are Lysophosphosphatidyl choline and one
fatty acid, when the substrate is PC.
• Phospholipase B acts on Lysophospholipid, produces glycerophosphoryl choline and
free fatty acid.
• Phospholipase C acts on phospholipids produce diglyceride and Phosphoryl choline.
• Phospholipase D acts on phospholipids, produce choline and phosphatidic acid.

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 Digestion and Absorption of Lipids
• Cholesterol esterase hydrolyses cholesterol ester to free cholesterol and one fatty acid.
• The digested products are water soluble but some are insoluble.
• Glycerol, short chain fatty acids enter portal blood directly. Cholesterol, long chain
fatty acids are esterified and absorbed in form of micelles .Bile salts are required for the
process.
• Impaired secretion of lipases from the pancreas and bile salts from liver results in
failure in fat absorption and causes steatorrea (excessive passage fatty stool).

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 Digestion and Absorption of Lipids

• Products of lipid digestion are absorbed from micelles. The micelles, through the
intestinal lumen move to the brush border of the mucosal cells where they are absorbed
into the intestinal epithelium.
• The bile salts are reabsorbed and reach by enterohepatic circulation to the liver to be used
over again.
• Their absorption is maximum in the ileum and jejunum.
• The free fatty acids and monoacylglycerols are absorbed through the epithelial cells lining
the small intestine and pass to the lymphatic system where they join the systemic blood
via the thoracic duct.
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 Digestion and Absorption of Lipids
• The intestinal mucosa secretes into the lymph, the absorbed lipids as chylomicrons.
The former have short life in blood (<lhr) and make plasma milky after rich meal.
• The free fatty acids in blood (long chain) are bound to albumin and transported by
blood to the liver.

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 Fat Digestion and Absorption in Ruminants
• There are major differences in the process of fat digestion and absorption between ruminants and non-
ruminants animals.
• Dairy cows mainly consume a diet that contains “polyunsaturated” fatty acids (PUFA) as part of plant
triglycerides and glycolipids. The bacteria in the rumen will split off the fatty acids (and sugars) from
the glycerol backbone.
• The glycerol and the sugars released from glycolipids are fermented to the volatile fatty acids (VFA).
• Moreover, this process is completed so that no monoglycerides or diglycerides are passed to the lower
digestive tract.
• There is an exception however, when a highly saturated (or hydrogenated ) triglyceride is fed. This is due
to the high melting point of such fats, resulting in low solubility, causing bacterial enzymes to not able to
gain access to the bonds linking fatty acids to glycerol, so these would pass to the lower digestive tract.

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 Fat Digestion and Absorption in Ruminants
• Unfortunately, the same limitations of solubility and melting point result in poor access of
the animal’s digestive enzymes in the small intestine, and very poor digestibility in that site
as well.
• The fatty acids released in the rumen are not immediately absorbed in the rumen, but
rather will pass to the abomasum and then the small intestine, which is the primary site
for absorption of the fatty acids.
• However, the profile of fatty acids that reaches the intestine will be very different from
what the animal has consumed. This is because of the extensive biohydrogenation
that occurs in the rumen as a result of bacterial activity.
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 Fat Digestion and Absorption in Ruminants
• Unsaturated fatty acids are toxic to many of the species of rumen bacteria, especially to those that
are involved in the fiber digestion.
• As unsaturated fatty acids are released from glycerol backbone, they are quickly hydrogenated to
saturated fatty acids. In cows that are fed with typical diets, over 90% of the unsaturated fatty acids
will be bio hydrogenated to produce saturated fatty acids that flow to the small intestine.
• Biohydrogenation is considered a favorable process from the standpoint of rumen
carbohydrate fermentation because it reduces potential negative effects of unsaturated fatty
acids on rumen fermentation of fiber. The negative effects on microbial fiber digestion is
the main reason why large amounts of free vegetable oils cannot be fed to dairy cows.

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 Digestion of Carbohydrates
• Dietary carbohydrates principally consist of the polysaccharides: starch and glycogen. It
also contains disaccharides: sucrose, lactose, maltose and in small amounts
monosaccharides like fructose and pentoses.
• Liquid food materials like milk, soup, fruit juice escape digestion in mouth as they are
swallowed, but solid foodstuffs are masticated thoroughly before they are swallowed.

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 Digestion of Carbohydrates

• 1. Digestion in Mouth
• Digestion of carbohydrates starts at the mouth, where they come in contact with saliva during
mastication.
• Saliva contains a carbohydrate splitting enzyme called salivary amylase (ptyalin).
• Action of ptyalin (salivary amylase)
• It is α - amylase, requires Cl- ion for activation and optimum pH 6-7.
• The enzyme hydrolyzes α- (1,4) glycosidic linkage at random, from molecules like starch, glycogen
and dextrins, producing smaller molecules maltose, glucose and oligosaccharides maltotriose.
• Ptyalin action stops in stomach when pH falls to 3.0.
α –Amylase
 Starch or glycogen Glucose, Maltose and Maltotriose.
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 Digestion of Carbohydrates
• 2. Digestion in Stomach
• No carbohydrate splitting enzymes are available in gastric juice. HCl may hydrolyze
some dietary sucrose to equal amounts of glucose and fructose.
• 3. Digestion in Duodenum
• Food reaches the duodenum from stomach where it meets the pancreatic juice.
Pancreatic juice contains a carbohydrate-splitting enzyme pancreatic amylase.

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 Digestion of Carbohydrates
• Action of pancreatic Amylase
• It is also an α - amylase, optimum pH 7.1. Like ptyalin it also requires Cl- for activity.
• The enzyme hydrolyzes α-(1,4) glycosidic linkage situated well inside polysaccharide
molecule. Other criteria and end products of action are similar of ptyalin.

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 Digestion of Carbohydrates

• 4. Digestion in Small Intestine

• Action of Intestinal Juice
• A. Lactase:
• It is a β- glycosidase, its pH range is 5.4 to 6.0. Lactose is hydrolyzed to glucose and galactose.
 Lactose lactase Glucose + Galactose
• B. Maltase
• The enzyme hydrolyzes the α -(1,4) glycosidic linkage between glucose units in maltose molecule
liberating two glucose molecules. Its pH range is 5.8 to 6.2.
 Maltose
Maltase Glucose + Glucose
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 Digestion of Carbohydrates
• C. Sucrase: PH ranges 5.0 to 7.0. It hydrolyzes sucrose molecule to form
glucose and fructose.
 Sucrose Sucrase
Glucose + Fructose

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 Absorption of Carbohydrates
• Products of digestion of dietary carbohydrates are practically completely absorbed
almost entirely from the small intestine.
• Absorption from proximal jejunum is three times grater than that of distal ileum.
• It is also proved that some disaccharides, which escape digestion, may enter the cells of
the intestinal lumen by “pinocytosis” and are hydrolyzed within these cells.
• No carbohydrates higher than the monosaccharides can be absorbed directly in to the
blood stream.

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 Absorption of Carbohydrates
• Mechanism of Absorption
• Two mechanisms are involved:
• 1. Simple Diffusion
• This is dependent on sugar concentration gradients between the intestinal lumen. Mucosal cells and blood plasma. All the
monosaccharides are probably absorbed to some extent by simple
• ‘passive’ diffusion.
• 2. “Active “Transport Mechanisms
 Glucose and galactose are absorbed very rapidly and hence it has been suggested that they are absorbed actively and it
requires energy.
 Fructose absorption is also rapid but not so much as compared to glucose and galactose but it is definitely faster than
pentoses.
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 Carbohydrate Digestion in Ruminants
• Carbohydrate digestion in ruminant animals is through microbial fermentation in the rumen. Dietary
carbohydrates are degraded (fermented) by rumen microbes (bacteria, fungi, protozoa). The purpose of
rumen fermentation is to produce energy as ATP for the bacteria to use for protein synthesis and their own
growth. VFAs, also known as short-chain fatty acids (shown below), are produced as a product of rumen
fermentation and are absorbed through the rumen wall and are utilized by the animal as an energy source.
• Major Volatile Fatty Acids Produced in the Rumen
• Acetic acid
• Propionic acid
• Butyric acid
• The three major VFAs are acetic (C2), propionic (C3), and butyric acid (C4).

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