Digestion & Absorption

Digestion of carbohydrates
• Dietary carbohydrates
• intake - 500 -900 gm / day ( 50 -60 % diet )

1) Polysaccharides -
• Starch – carbohydrate reserve of plants
• Amylose (15-20 %, water soluble, straight chain
polysaccharide
• Amylopectins ( 85-90 %) branched chain polysaccharide
• Glycogen – Animal starch, non vegetarian diet
• Cellulose - plant polysaccharide present in diet Non
digestible
2) Oligosaccharides –

•undigested oligosaccharides contain 2-10 monosaccharide's molecule

,which are liberated on hydrolysis

• based on the number of monosaccharide's units present oligosaccharides

further subdivided into di,tri,tetra and pentasaccharides

Disaccharides –include
•Sucrose( glucose + fructose)
•Lactose (glucose + galactose)
•Maltose (glucose + glucose)
•
2) In stomach –
• minimal carbohydrate digestive activity
• Action of α – amylase continues for 20 min. till the highly
acidic gastric juice mixes with the food and make it
inactivate
• optimum pH the action of salivary amylase is 6-7 and
when it fall below 4 activity in stomach completely stops
• The HCL of the gastric juice may hydrolyse some sucrose
3) Monosaccharide's –
• consumed in diet as hexoses
• Glucose in fruits ,vegetables and honey
• Fructose in fruits
• Pentoses do not occur in free form ,but are found in nucleic
acid
• Other carbohydrates which may present in the human diet
are alcohol, lactic acid , pyruvic acid ,pectin, dextrin
 Digestion of Carbohydrates

Digestion of carbohydrate begin in mouth continues in stomach but

occur in small intestine
1) In mouth –
• Initiated by α – amylase(ptyalin) present in the saliva
• action limited by short duration of stay
• acts only on 1-4 linkage ( digests starch to maltose)
• It digest cooked starch to maltose
3) In Small Intestine digested by amylolytic enzyme present in pancreatic
juice

a) Pancreatic α – amylase –
• more powerful ( starts in duodenum)
• Acts on unboiled and boiled starch.
• hydrolyses all starch within 15 to 30 min. of the entry of chyme into
duodenum.
• acts in alkaline pH.
• activity stimulated by presence of bile salt.
• It action occurs before the chyme passes beyond the duodenum or upper
jejunum
• pancreatic amylase act in alkaline medium
• converts starch into maltose, maltotriose and dextrin.
b) Brush border enzymes –
• the carbohydrate splitting brush border enzyme of small
intestine e.g. Dextrinase, maltase, sucrase, lactase
• Brush border enzyme digest the oligosaccharides into
monosaccharide's on the surface of epithelial cells of villi
role of α limit dextrinase –acts on α 1,6 glycoside linkage
- Role of other enzymes
• dextrin α limiting dextrane glucose
• maltose maltase glucose
• sucrose sucrase glucose + fructose
• lactose lactase glucose + galactose
• End products of carbohydrate digestion
• Carbohydrate digestion completed in jejunum & proximal ileum.
• The end product of carbohydrates are monosaccharide
• These are Glucose 80%, galactose & fructose 20%.
• pentoses are end product of nucleic acids.
 Absorption of carbohydrates

• Carbohydrates are absorbed from the GIT in the form of monosaccharides

•The monosaccharides include those form at brush border and ingested as

glucose and fructose

Site of absorption –
• maximalin mucosal surface of jejunum & proximal ileum.
•The absorption almost complete before the meal reach the terminal ileum
•No absorption occur in stomach and colon
• Mechanism of absorption

1. Glucose and galactose are absorbed by common Na

dependent active transport
2. Fructose is absorbed by facilitated diffusion; fructose absorb
readily, most of fructose is converted into glucose and lactic
acid
3. Pentoses are absorbed by simple diffusion
 a) Absorption of glucose & galactose
• absorbed into the epithelial cells lining the mucous
membrane of small intestine lining from their brush border
• occurs by secondary active transport by SGLT 1

• Steps involved –

1. binding of Na, Glucose to carrier protein(SGLT1)

2. Creation of electrochemical gradient by Na-K-ATP ase pump
3. movement of Na & glucose inside.( downhill transport)
4. Transport of glucose into blood capillaries – GLUT – 2 (by
facilitated diffusion)
• Factors affecting glucose absorption
1. Presence of Na in lumen ; favours
2. State of mucus membrane ;absorption of glucose decreased
in abnormal mucous membrane enteritis, coelic disease
3. Duration of contact with mucus membrane; absorption of
Na decreased in diarrhea, gastrocolic fistula

•
. 4) Role of endocrines
• Thyroxine increase absorption in thyrotoxicosis and
decrease in myxedema
• Adrenal cortex deficiency decreases glucose absorption
by decreasing Na conc .

• Regulation of carbohydrate digestion & absorption

- No any regulatory mechanisms
• Fate of Glucose in body
a) Storage as glycogen in liver and muscle
b) catabolism;50 -60 % is absorbed and
catabolised in body tissue to produce energy
c) Conversion to fats 30-40%
Abnormalities of carbohydrate digestion & absorption
Lactose intolerance –

1. Congenital;
• condition in which lactose cannot be digested due to deficiency of enzyme
lactase
• undigested lactose act as osmotic particles and draws excessive fluid into
intestine resulting diarrhea
• undigested lactose is metabolized by bacteria produce verity of gases that
irritate intestine and increase colonic motility

2. Secondary lactose intolerance

• occur in adult very common
• produce intestinal distension ,diarrhea and flatulence
•
 Digestion & Absorption of Proteins
Sources of protein
1) Exogenous source (50%)
RDA – 0.5-0.7 gm / kg body wt. in adults
Quantity – 90 -100 gm / day
Sources - vegetable sources; pulses soyabean
animal products
• Proteins of important dietary items
- Wheat – gluten, gliadin, glycinin
- milk – caesin, albumin, lactalbumin
- egg – albumin, vitelline
- meat – collagen, myosin, albumin
the dietary proteins are made of long chains of amino acids bound
together by peptide linkage

2) Endogenous source
- total 30-50 gm /day
- reach intestine by proteins of GI secretions & desquamated epithelial
cells of the gut
 Digestion of proteins
• Proteins are digested by the proteolytic enzymes into
amino acids and small peptides before they absorbed
• Starts in stomach & completed in small intestine

• Digestion in stomach
• Pepsin –
• secreted by chief cells of main gastric gland
• Pepsinogen is convert into pepsin by action of HCL or
performed pepsin
• responsible for 10-15% digestion
• optimum pH for action of pepsin is 2
• splits protein into proteose, peptone, large
polypeptides.
• Unique characteristic – can digest collagen , thus
helpful in digestion of meat.
• protein digestion within the stomach is important
- protein digestion products in turn acts as
“secretogouge i.e. stimulate secretion of proteolytic
enzymes of pancreas
• In small intestine
Proteins are digested by pancreatic protease

Pancreatic proteases –
• Play the most important role in digestion
• even in the absence of gastric pepsin
• Digest protein into di-, tri-peptides, polypeptides.
• Some of dipeptide ,tripeptides are absorbed directly into the
epithelial cell of mucosa of small intestine
• Brush border peptidases-
• are the proteolytic enzymes form an integral constituent of
the cell membrane
• include aminopeptidase, dipeptidase, tripeptidase, nuclease.

• Intracellular peptidase ;
• are proteolytic enzymes present in the cytosol of epithelial
cell of small intestine -
• multiple peptidase present in enterocyte are specific for
given linkage between amino acids .
• Digestion of nucleic acids and nucleoproteins

1) In stomach – HCL acts on nucleoproteins to break them into

nucleic acids & proteins

2) In small intestine – free nucleic acids are digested by pancreatic

enzymes and brush border

a) Pancreatic enzymes – ribonuclease and deoxyribonuclease

digest nucleic acids into nucleotides & nucleosides.

b) Brush border enzymes –such as nucleases, nucleotidases and

nucleosidase converts into purine & pyrimidines
• End product of protein digestion
• The protein digestion start in the stomach is
completed in the enterocyte of small intestine
• The end product of protein digestion are
amino acids.
 Absorption of proteins

• absorption of a.a., dipeptide, tripeptides, small peptides can

occurs
• Location – through luminal surface of the epithelial cells of
small intestine
• Absorption of amino acids are faster in duodenum and
jejunum and slower in ileum.
•Mechanisms
a) Na dependent active transport –

• the levo – amino acids., di- , tri-peptides are absorbed.

• separate transporters are involved for acidic , basic and neutral amino acids

• Steps – are similar to mechanism of SGLT – 1

1.binding of amino acids and Na to carrier protein

2.creation of electrochemical gradient across the epithelial cells
3.movement of Na and amino acids inside the cell
• b) Simple diffusion – dextro- amino acids are
absorbed by passive diffusion

c) Endocytosis –
• larger polypeptides cannot be absorbed into the
epithelial cells .
• Small amount of polypeptide are absorbed by
endocytosis excite immunological reaction.
• In newborns IgA is absorbed by endocytosis in small and
impart passive immunity to infant.
- Further digestion in epithelial cells
• Once amino acids and polypeptides are
absorbed into the intestinal epithelial cells
• Intracellular peptidases break the remaining
linkage of di- , tripeptidases in cytoplasm
release the a.a.
Transport of amino acids into blood
• from inside the epithelial cells the amino acids are
transported into the interstitial space across at basolateral
membrane by facilitated or simple diffusion & reach liver.

• All the proteins can be digested & absorbed

• Only 2-5 % escape digestion & absorption, but handled by
bacteria's.
• Thus proteins in the stool are derived from cellular and
bacterial debris.
Abnormalities of protein digestion &
absorption

1. Inadequate absorption – in pancreatic diseases due

to lack of trypsin

2. Malabsorption of proteins – deficiency of

transporters - e.g. hartnup’s disease -
malabsorption of neutral a.a. l/t cystinuria