DIGESTION &

ABSORPTION

dr. I Wayan Surudarma, M.Si.

 Digestion
• Digestion is the degradation of nutrient
molecules into components simple enough to
be absorbed in the intestine
– Organs involved: GI tract, Liver and
Pancreas
– The main nutrient macromolecules
contained in food digested are
carbohydrates, lipids and proteins.

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 General principles of digestion

1. Lubrication and homogenization of food

2. Secretion of enzymes
3. Secretion of electrolytes, hydrogen ion and
bicarbonate
4. Secretion of bile acids.
5. Hydrolysis of oligomers and dimers by
membrane-bound surface enzymes

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 Digestive Enzymes
• Most digestive enzymes are secreted as
inactive precursors.
– termed zymogens
• All digestive enzymes are hydrolases (enzyme
class III)

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 Oral Digestive Enzymes
• Salivary Amylase:
– Salivary Glands
– works on Starch producing maltose, maltotriose,
dextrins.
– specific for internal α1 → 4-glycosidic linkage
– totally inert towards α1→ 6-glycosidic linkage
• Lingual lipase:
– Ebner Glands
– Works on triglycerides producing fatty acids,
diacylglycerols, glycerols.
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 Gastric enzymes
Pepsin
• Released as inactive precursor, pepsinogen
– active in the presence of HCl
– Activated by autoactivation by active pepsin
• cleave proteins and polypeptides into
peptides or amino acids

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 Pancreatic enzymes
1. Pancreatic protease
2. Pancreatic Lipases
3. Pancreatic Amylases
4. Pancreatic nucleases

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 Pancreatic Proteolytic Enzymes
• Trypsin
– activated by enteropetidase
– Trypsin cleaves peptide chains mainly at the
carboxyl side of the basic amino acids (lysine
or arginine)
– activates many of the other digestive
enzymes
• Chymotrypsin
– splits the bonds on the carboxyl side of the
aromatic amino acids (tyrosine, tryptophan) 8
• Elastase
– splits bonds on the carboxyl side of aliphatic
amino acids
• Carboxypeptidase A
– cleaves carboxyl terminal amino acids that
have aromatic or aliphatic side chains
• Carboxypeptidase B
– cleaves carboxyl terminal amino acids that
have basic side chains, such as arginine.

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 Pancreatic Lipases
• Pancreatic lipase
– splits triglycerides into monoglycerides & fatty
acids
• Phospholipase A2
– splits phospholipids into fatty acids and
lysophospholipids
• Cholesteryl ester hydrolase
– splits cholesteryl esters into cholesterol &
fatty acids
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 Pancreatic Amylases
• Pancreatic alpha amylase
– Splits starch as does the salivary enzyme

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 Enzymes of the Mucosa
A. Sugar digesting Enzymes of the Mucosa
1. Maltase splits Maltose into glucose
2. Lactase splits lactose into Galactose an
glucose
3. Sucrase splits Sucrose into Fructose and
Glucose
4. Dextrinase splits dextrins, maltose and
maltotriose into Glucose
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B. Peptidase activity in the Mucosa
1. Enteropeptidase converts trypsinogen into
Trypsin
2. Aminopeptidase splits off amino terminal
amino acids.
3. Carboxypeptidase splits off carboxyl terminal
amino acids.
4. Dipeptidase splits between two amino acids

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 Gastric Acid secretion

• Gastric Acid secreted by gastric parietal cell

• Secretion is stimulated by extracellular
signals :
– Histamin
– Gastrin
– Acetylcholine

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 Acid secretion
• The proton pump moves to the secretory
canaliculus from tubulovesicles.
• The H+ transported by proton pump are
supplied by carbonic anhydrase.
• The potassium (K+) imported by the proton
pump are again excreted by a K+ channel.
• Bicarbonate is antiported with Cl-, and Cl- is
secreted through a Cl- channel.

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 Bile
• An important fluid produced by the liver that
contains water, electrolytes, and organic
molecules including bile acids
• Bile acids maintain cholesterol homeostasis
• Are crucial for digestion and absorption of fats
and fat-soluble vitamins
• 400-800mL produced daily

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 Bile Acids

• Produced from cholesterol in the liver (cholic

acid and chenodioxycholic acid)
• Conjugated to an amino acid (taurine or
glycine)
• Collected in biliary passages
• Stored in the gallbladder
• Secreted into the duodenum

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Srdm-kolesterol-unizar 20
Conjugate Form
• Amphipathic
• Portion derived
from cholesterol
(bile acid itself) is
hydrophobic
• Amino acid portion
is hydropphilic

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 Roles
• Aids in digestion of fats ( through
emulsification)
• Important in limiting cholesterol in the body
• Absorbs fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins
A, D, E, and K
• Antibacterial activity

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 Bile Salt
• Bile salt are essential for solubilizing lipids during the
digestive process
• Without bile salt acting as detergent, the digested lipid
would not be in a form suitable for absorption from the
gut.
• Bile acids form aggregates (micelles)
• The micelles mediate the transport of lipid digest
through the aqueous environment of gut lumen to the
brush border of enterocytes  to be absorbed

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 Carbohydrate digestion
• Dietary carbohydrates
– the major source of our daily energy
requirement
– present as : polysaccarides, disaccarides,
monosaccarides
• Monosaccarides require no further digestion
to be absorbed across the GI tract
• Both disaccarides and polysaccarides require
hydrolytic cleavage prior to absorption
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 Polysaccaride digestion
• Promoted by amylase.
– The product are maltose, maltotriosa and
α-limit dextrin
• All of these products then further
hydrolyzed by maltase, isomaltase,
dextrinase and glucoamylase.
– Final formation  monosaccaride
glucose

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 Disaccarides digestion

• Dietary disaccarides such as maltose, lactose

and sucrose are hydrolyzed to their constituent
monomeric sugars by a series of specific
disaccaridases
– Maltase
– Lactase
– Sucrase

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 Absorption of dietary carbohydrates

• The absorption is via specific carrier-mediated

mechanism.
• Two carrier-mediated transport system for
monosaccarides
– Na+-dependent co-transporter
• Glucose
• galactose
– Na+-independent transporter
• Fructose
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 Protein Digestion
• Protein are hydrolyzed by peptidases
– Endopeptidases: cleave internal peptide
bond (pepsin, trypsin, chymotrypsin,
elastase)
– Exopeptidases
• Carboxypeptidases: cleave of amino acid
from –COOH terminal.
• Aminopeptidases: cleave of amino acid
from –NH2 terminal.
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 Phase of protein digestion
• Depending on the source of peptidases,
protein digestion can be divided into
– Gastric phase
– Pancreatic phase
– Intestinal phase

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 Gastric phase
• Secreted HCl reduces the pH to 1-2
– Activate pepsinogen
– denaturation of protein dietary
 unfolding of polypeptide chain
 accessible to protease activity
• Secretion of Pepsin
– The major products of pepsin digestion are
large fragments polipetides and some free
amino acids.
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 Pancreatic phase
• Pancreas produce sodium bicarbonate
(NaHCO3)
– Neutralizing acid content of the stomach
– Promoting pancreatic alkaline protease
activity.
• Secretion of Pancreatic Proteolytic Enzymes
• Combined effect of pancreatic enzymes is to
produce free amino acid and small molecular
weight peptides of two to eight residues in
length.
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 Intestinal phase
• The final digestion of oligo- and dipeptides is
dependent on membrane-bound small intestine
enzyme:
– Endopeptidases, Dipeptidases,
Aminopeptidases
• The end-products are free amino acids, di- and
tripeptides
– Di- and tripeptides are further hydrolyzed to
their constituent amino acids inside the
enterocyte
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 Active transport of amino acids
• Na+-dependent symporter for amino acids
uptake are link to ATP-dependent pumping out
of Na+ at the contraluminal membrane.
• A similar H+-dependent symporter is present for
di- and tripeptides active transport into the cell.
• Na+-independent transporter are present on the
contraluminal surface, allowing the facilitated
transport of amino acids to the hepatic portal
system.
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 Digestion of Lipid
• 90% of dietary lipid intake is triglycerides (TAG)
– with remainder as Cholesterol, Cholesterol
ester, Phospholipids, and Free fatty acids
(FFA)

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 Hydrophobic problem of fats
• The hydrophobic nature of lipid excludes
water-soluble digestive enzymes.
• Fats globules present limited surface area for
enzyme action
Globules of fat need to emulsified before
digestion can take place

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 Change in physical structure
of lipid in stomach
• Heat helps to liquefy lipids
• Peristaltic movements aid in formation of a
lipid emulsion

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 In the duodenum
• Pancreatic enzymes and bile salt act on the
lipid
– Major digestive process using enzymes
secreted by pancreas
– Solubilization is aided by bile salt

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 Pancreatic lipase
• The action of pancreatic lipase produces
mainly 2-monoacylglycerol (2-MAG)
• Very little dietary TAG is completely hydrolyzed
to glycerols and fatty acids

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 Absorption of Lipid
• By diffusion
• Almost 100% fatty acids and 2-MAGs is
absorbed.
• Only 30-40% dietary cholesterol is absorbed.
• Bile salts are absorbed and passed back to the
liver via entero-hepatic circulation

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 The fates of FA entering the
enterocytes
• Depend on their chain length:
– FA more than 12 carbon atoms 
resynthesis into TAG.
– Medium and short FA pass directly to the
hepatic portal.
– Glycerol passed directly to the hepatic
portal.

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Terimakasih

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